Come to the Grace of Heaven's Eternal Fantasy
by Kmm1128
Summary: Da'an's newly inherited powers have driven her insane, and now she faces the same ill fate that befell her brother centuries before her.
1. Chapter 1

Come to the Grace of Heaven's Eternal Fantasy

_Author's Note:_ I feel it's my duty as the writer of this story to warn you that is probably going to be the most bizarre "Earth: Final Conflict" fanfiction story you have ever read. It may take more than one read to figure it all out because there is so much in it. I'm not going to give anything away by trying to explain the story or what I was thinking when I wrote it. Just know that above all else "Come to the Grace of Heaven's Eternal Fantasy" is a love story. It is a spiritual, philosophical, and metaphorical examination of love in all its forms. If you keep this in mind, you will realize why this story holds a special place in my heart and why it took me over a year to perfect it. Reviews are always welcome.

Chapter 1: Open Your Heart

Two voices no three four a male a female I don't remember someone came to me last night can't remember his face a child a little girl no a boy no a girl a boy I held him he was mine I loved him he can't remember his name he tugs my hand he cries he wants me to hear him I loved him but I can't remember a man the sound of footsteps a smell lavender maybe can't remember he is so beautiful that man who is he I am in his arms he holds me and rocks me to sleep a voice mine maybe not sure kill me please kill me but why so many faces with names I cannot remember those names who am I where is my face what do I look like am I a boy or a girl my boy in my arms but surely I am a mother who is that man the one who holds me no not him his face is different I cannot remember his name but he looks like me are we related but how cold it's so cold when I was a child my parent drowned me but why music playing in the background what music strings some kind of string instrument soft a flowing tune like a small steam maybe a cascade at the end it's so cold he is holding me under that man his face does he hate me I cannot breathe someone help me that scent of lavender my hands are reaching for what something solid but nothing here only air wind maybe yes a breeze then I must be standing I cannot feel the ground beneath my feet but I can feel that breeze but what temperature none can't sense it maybe a new scent cinnamon maybe mixed with lavender pleasant but not really strange oh heavy all of a sudden my legs dizzy can't breathe it's so cold I am freezing can't breathe please help me my twin please help me see me please see me hear me please hear me where am I can no longer stand the voices can no longer keep balance I will faint a faint voice a voice in the background he is calling to me my twin see me please see me what did I do how did I save you help me tell this man to let me go who is he can no longer breathe I will fade I will die.

* * *

When Ma'el awoke two strong arms held him. His vision was blurry, but from the order of colors he could tell he was in a room of some sort. There was a faint smell in the background of lavender and an even stronger smell of spicy cinnamon. 

"Sire. Are you all right?" a masculine voice asked him and helped him sit on something soft and comfortable.

Ma'el could not shake the nauseous feeling in his abdomen. He had not had a vision that jumbled and violent in a long time. For as long as he could remember, his visions had been fairly kind to him. They were scrambled, but not too scrambled. The voices were always soft, and they always came to him when he was ready for them: during his slumber. But this time had been different.

"Sire. Speak to me," that voice he did not recognize pleaded.

His sight finally became clear again. The room was small but very comfortable. That lavender he had smelt came from several flowerpots standing on small pillars stationed at each corner of the room. They were kept alive with some kind of blue light coming from lamps standing next to each flowerpot. There was a rug on the floor weaved in a tapestry of blues, violets, and purples. The shapes were abstract but still very beautiful. He wondered who had made it for him.

"Sire. Can you hear me?"

Ma'el finally turned his head to acknowledge the male who was speaking to him. He was surprised to see how young the male looked. He was just a boy. He could not have been any older than his mid-twenties. His hair was black and his eyes were hazel. His skin was white but not pale. He had a tan. Perhaps he had been working in sunlight. His strong grip was straining Ma'el's arms and shoulders. "Who are you?"

The boy appeared astounded. He did not sense that the boy had been offended by the question, but he was definitely concerned. "Sire. You do not recognize me? It is I. Paul. I am your protector."

Paul. Where had Ma'el heard this name before? He felt like he should know. After all, the boy had explicitly told him that he was Ma'el's protector. Ma'el did not sense that he was lying. Something about this whole situation did not feel right. Ma'el felt misplaced. He felt like he did not belong. He had memories, but only a select few. He remembered enough to know who he was and where he had come from. He remembered enough to know that he was a telepath who also had visions of the future. But that was where it ended. Ma'el lifted his hand and asked for the boy's. The boy gladly relinquished his hand. Ma'el dug into the boy's aura and thus into the boy's mind. From this he saw images of him and the boy together. There were several with him in a multi-colored robe and the boy in thick brown slacks and brown shirt that had been stitched with thick and rough threads and a soft, silk scarlet and white overcoat. But the most powerful was of the boy pulling him from churning water to a small shoreline in pouring rain. A flood of his own memories came to him as a reaction towards the memories this boy had shown him. Ma'el now knew exactly where he was and whom he was with.

"Of course, Paul. Forgive me. I must have drifted."

"You appeared in peril," Paul said. "Are you certain that you are all right?"

Ma'el had not relinquished Paul's hand back to him because he realized that the spicy scent of cinnamon was coming from Paul's hands. In fact, it was coming from all over his body.

"Cinnamon," Ma'el said, finally letting go of Paul's hands.

"Yes, sire. It is an oil that Sonya made for me," Paul explained dismissively. "She thought I could use something different from the lavender oils I use. It is of no matter to me, but Sonya seems to like it. So I wear it for her."

"I like it. It smells pleasant," Ma'el said. "Paul, if I ask you a question, will you be offended?"

"Of course not," Paul replied eagerly.

"What was I doing before I collapsed?" Ma'el asked uneasily. His abdomen still carried that nauseous feeling that had blurred his sight before.

Paul understood why Ma'el could see him being offended by such a redundant question. But if Paul had not been offended when Ma'el did not recognize him, this would certainly not offend him. "You were meditating. You told me that you must meditate in order to locate the perfect spot for the gateway."

"Gateway?" Ma'el whispered sharply. That term ignited a whole series of thoughts and feelings.

"Yes. You said that only the most powerful telepaths are able to sense the location of the gateway and only the most powerful prophets can predict where it will appear. You have been searching for it for quite some time."

Ma'el wanted to be alone, but he could not shake that face that showed nothing but concern for him. "Paul. I believe that I have had an extremely powerful vision, one that has temporarily robbed me of my memories. Please leave me in this room and give me some time to recover."

"Of course," Paul said leaving at once, but Ma'el could still sense the urgency in him.

Ma'el looked down to observe the garments he was wearing. The silk of the multi-colored robe felt soft and smooth under his fingers. It felt so light on him that he felt like he was not wearing it at all. He was wearing a piece of the wind rather than a garment. He brushed his hands over his head. Something as soft as the silk but slightly rougher in texture caught his attention. They were strands. Short strands of hair on his head. Upon that discovery, he searched quickly but not frantically for a mirror. He found one under the cushioned blue cot near the corner. It was inside a box, a box that looked very familiar to him. He lifted the mirror to see his face. His hair was short enough to have small curls running through it. The hair was as red as a flame. He waved his free hand over the curly hair. Instantly it straightened. He decided he looked better with it straight. His eyes were a brilliant cerulean color. He had a slender, but not too slender, nose and lips full enough to be a girl's. His brows were thick but not too thick, and his eyelashes were so thick that he could have curled them upward if he cared enough to do so. His skin was white like ivory and wound tightly on his face. But it was not the small features that astounded him so much as the overall look. He expected to find an aging old man or at the least a bulbous alien face. Instead, he had the looks of a boy no older than Paul. He recited his name a few times and found that his voice sounded just as youthful. The only indicator of his true age and his true form was the flash of blue that circulated through his body when he blushed. He wished that he had a larger mirror at hand so that he could see the whole of his body.

He searched the contents of the box that looked so familiar to him. Inside he found several small data crystals. He took one and inserted into a holder he found on a desk that was closer to the door. A large three-dimensional screen appeared in front of him when he inserted the disk and Taelon symbols appeared in front of him floating in all directions in a pattern that only he could understand. This was an entry of a diary. Using his hands he scrolled through the Taelon texts to find more entries. He inserted the other disks and found more entries until he found the oldest entry that had been written when Ma'el was only three years old.

He then spent several minutes reading through the entries learning about himself. These entries triggered memories that told him more about himself. His name was Ma'el Amo'qui. His mother died in childbirth after having his twin sibling Da'an. Ma'el was a telepath. His sister was a telekinetic. Their powers alienated them from their remaining parent Bel'lie, who despised Da'an even more than he despised Ma'el. He feared her, and Ma'el could sense that, so he told Da'an to beware of him. One night Ma'el had a vision of his sister dying in a pool of water at Bel'lie's hands. He warned Da'an of Bel'lie's plans, but she panicked. She didn't want to be anywhere near him, and she screamed in terror every time he tried to touch her. One night, Ma'el awoke and found that his sister was missing. He searched for her all over the house, but she was gone. Bel'lie was gone too. He used his telepathy to call out to her, but she was still slumbering. Afraid that his vision had come true, Ma'el rushed out into the night to find water in the closest place he could think of: a small lake in the woods near where they lived. He ran as fast as he could, and eventually he found Bel'lie bent on his knees over the water with something struggling in his arms under the water. Ma'el edged nearer to find out who it was, but by the time he realized that it was his sister, the struggling had stopped, and Bel'lie had lifted his hands out of the water. In a blind rage Ma'el used his powers against his parent. He belted him with his mental abilities for quite some time. He wanted Bel'lie to suffer for what he had done, but he stopped suddenly when he saw a brilliant white light rise from the water and solidify itself into his sister. Da'an had survived. He did not understand how, but she had survived. In a rage more powerful than his could ever be, she snapped the mighty trees from where they had stood and ignited them in flames. The ring of fire got closer and closer to Bel'lie and frightened him so terribly that he fainted. The entire forest around them erupted in flames including the lake where Bel'lie had drowned her. Ma'el rushed to his sister and grabbed her. The flames subsided, but they were not gone. She was so surprised by Ma'el's touch that she started screaming. He fled with her tightly wrapped in his arms still screaming bloody murder until they came to a nearby house. That was where they called the authorities and waited with the Taelons in the household until they came to arrest Bel'lie.

Ma'el read on from there. He read for hours letting all the memories return to him in tides with each passage. He recalled the power of his visions and how terrible they had been to him when he was a child. He remembered how his sister had held him tightly and taken away the pain. It was from her comfort that he discovered that she had an extraordinary power hidden away, a power that had saved her life when her parent tried to drown her. She was a purifier. And from this, Ma'el recalled the many times she had used this power to save him from the brink of insanity.

He recalled the evolutionary struggle the high priest had put the Taelons through. He recollected how the Kimera had drawn the Taelons to the Commonality and had altered their evolutionary course. He recalled how the high priest continued that evolutionary turn by maintaining the power of the Commonality. He remembered the terrible images of the Taelons' extinction that plagued him. And from those visions, he had decided to dedicate his life to restoring the Taelons to their rightful evolutionary path, a path without the imprisoning grip of the Commonality. His sister was the key to that path, and only she could save them.

_I will always love you. I will always protect you._

Everything was clear to him now, and he recalled why he had retreated to this, his bedroom. When the Taelons outlawed time travel and ordered all time travel technology destroyed, Ma'el had to find another way of transferring his powers to his sister. His research that he had conducted long before he ever came to Earth told stories of a powerful gateway, a portal between this world and the next. He was in the process of building a machine, using harnessing the geothermal power of the lava beneath these mountains to power it. This machine would tear a hole in the fabric that divided this plane of existence from the next.

Right now, his followers were at the final stages of completing this massive project. It had taken them fifty-six years, but they were almost finished. The labyrinth was all but completed. All that they really needed to do now was dig until they came to a power source and finish building the machine.

Contrary to what Paul had told him, he had simply retired to his room for a light rest. He had also gone in search of an object he had meant to show Paul. He found it in the box with his diary.

Ma'el then left his room and went in search of Paul. He found Paul on the bridge of his ship talking with a young white woman with long curly dark red hair. She was wearing a simple white dress under a multi-colored robe very similar to his. It was Sonya.

"Excuse me," Ma'el said softly.

"My lord, you are feeling better I presume," Sonya said with relief in her voice.

"I am," Ma'el said.

"Sire—"

Ma'el lifted his hand to silence Paul. "You are letting the sentiment of my followers override our friendship again. I told you that you are free of that formality."

"I apologize, Ma'el. It is a relatively new habit. Will 'my lord' suffice?"

"Paul, you are my protector and my friend. I respect this honor code you have adopted naming me as your superior despite the fact that we have been close for centuries and that my life is ultimately dependent on you. For your comfort, you may call me whatever you wish. Just be mindful that the title of 'sire' that my followers have decided to bestow upon me discomforts me, especially when uttered from the throat of a friend."

"You do not quite fit the profile of a king," Paul agreed.

Ma'el chuckled, but he stopped when a wandering thought entered his mind. This thought felt foreign to him. It was not long before he realized that this thought was not his own. "I believe you have a question to ask me, Paul."

"Ma'el, you have warned me time and time again of the consequences of delving too deeply into a vision for too long. Yet you have spent hours in your visions lately. You have spent nights."

"I understand your concern. Is that the meaning of this concept your species calls irony? When I do not follow my own advice?"

"Possibly. May I inquire—?"

"You may, Paul," Ma'el said softly, stopping him because he already knew what Paul was going to ask him. "I am running out of time. We can ill afford to wait any longer. We must shorten the time frame and complete this project as soon as possible. I have both observed and interacted with your species for hundreds of years. I have taken you as my protector and taken measures to prolong your life."

"For which I am grateful," Paul replied.

"Are you? Are you really?"

"Why not read my mind?"

"You know that I will never do that. I never have to. You send enough thoughts to me as it is."

Sonya laughed quietly.

Ma'el smiled when she did. For some reason, Sonya's smile reminded him of his sister's. Perhaps that was why he held her in high enough regard to let her walk freely around his ship.

"If I am allowed to ask, why are you so concerned with time?" Sonya asked curiously.

Ma'el paused for a long time, searching for an answer to give her, but he had none. He hated leaving her to wonder, but he also knew she would not be offended. She trusted him so. He never understood why that was. He asked Paul to follow him and for Sonya to leave and bring food and water to the workers in his labyrinth.

"When the generators are installed, I want you to strip my ship of its interdimensional core and of its weapons compartment," he told Paul when Sonya was gone. "Use the coils we retrieved long ago to connect the power from the core to the generator and install each of the weapons power fusion cores in the areas I marked for them. That should take care of the lack of a strong enough power source that you mentioned to me earlier."

"That is good. I have been wondering. Do you plan to allow our followers to pass this knowledge on to their children?"

"Absolutely not."

"You know that will not bode well. They all feel such knowledge is valuable and must be shared. They will not follow your command," Paul warned.

"There is no need for humans to learn such technological secrets earlier than they are ready. The only reason why I shared it with them now is because I had no choice. If the Taelons fell under the impression that all of humanity's advances in technology were because of me simply because of a few technological leaps forward I gave a select few, they would respect your species even less than they already do. I have recorded message after message asking my fellows not to come to Earth for reasons similar to this explanation, but the point my species will make quite clear when the time comes is that we did not choose your planet for your innovative intuition. Our reasons are much simpler."

"I know this," Paul said grimly.

"I cannot tell you how many times shame has plagued me over the Taelon agenda. What makes me even more ashamed is that I once agreed with it."

"Ma'el, I have never faulted you for your past mistakes. I am grateful for every day I am allowed to spend with you. You and I are living proof that the Taelons and the humans can work together. Just remember what you taught me. You always say that the past is not something to disregard, disrespect or disenchant, for the past offers the greatest gift to the present to help ensure a better future."

"Wisdom. The ability to learn from our mistakes. Did you know that my twin told me that?"

"He did?"

"Yes, but unfortunately, at the time she was no longer my twin. She and I were and still are strangers. I will die a stranger to my only family."

"I am sorry for that."

"Do not be. It is not important now," Ma'el said. They stopped at the entrance to the lab. When they entered, Paul closed and locked the door. "I assume you are going to tell me what you planned to tell me in my bedroom."

"Ah yes. You called me there to show me something."

"Of course I did," Ma'el said, his tone growing in excitement. "I have been working on this device for quite some time, and I thought you would like to be the first to see it."

He revealed the clear orb from beneath his robe. Paul took it and examined it closely. He could see a faint spark glowing inside the center. Suddenly, the orb bloomed like a flower. The cool, liquid substance fitted itself on to his hand like a glass glove.

"What is it?"

"It is amplifier made out of a combination of virtual glass and liquid crystal. It is a very difficult process that requires precise calculations. Given to the proper psychic, it could make an extremely powerful weapon."

"How do I take it off?" Paul asked.

Ma'el pressed the tip of his fingers into Paul's palm. The liquid seeped away from Paul and back into an orb in Ma'el's hand. "Small nanobots react to activate the crystal. I have not yet programmed them to react to a specific energy signature, so they react to anything they see. If you look close enough, you can see where they gather at the center of the orb."

"So that explains the faint spark I saw. How long did it take you to build it?"

"A year to make the prototype and four months to perfect it and build the final product. The amplifier does have one flaw, however. If it attaches itself to a person long enough it integrates into the subject's body. It becomes part of its host."

"Interesting. I suppose you intend to leave this for Da'an."

"That is correct."

"I believe it will suffice as a most effective device. You did mean to ask for my opinion, correct?"

"You're funny, Paul," Ma'el chuckled.

Paul chuckled along with him. "I will inform you when the technicians have finished the generator."

"Good. It is a very delicate process handling an interdimensional core and I want to be there personally to direct them."

Paul nodded and left, glad that Ma'el was feeling much better.

"And one more thing, Paul," Ma'el called just before Paul could start to leave.

"Yes?"

"Please spend some intimate time with Sonya away from here to save her the trouble of looking for excuses to enter my ship and flirt with you."

An awkward smile appeared on Paul's face. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Yes, Paul, it is," Ma'el said bluntly with a smirk painted on his face in response to his Paul's awkward grin.

Paul nodded humorously and left Ma'el alone in the lab. Ma'el opened a hidden compartment and pulled out a tiny miniature of a Taelon the Mayans had crafted for him. The eyes were crafted from rare jade stone. It was simple yet so beautiful like so many other things these humans both created and possessed. But looking into those jade eyes did not remind Ma'el of his many travels around this planet so much as it reminded him of the brilliant blue eyes of his sister. He visualized her now playing merrily with him and their older sibling Tay'jay. He began to long for those days, those days when things were so much simpler. He found that most beings did this when they were on the edge of death as he was.

* * *

Rembrandt Emerson Dauterive was a man with a secret. It was a secret that should not have shamed him today, but it did. 

He was concerned about Da'an. Everyone was. However, he was more concerned about her than anyone. They claimed her descent into insanity was a terrible thing to watch. Apparently his friends were either cowards or idiots. Rembrandt had seen it from the beginning. He was there when she awoke the first terrible night whimpering from her vision. He was there when the voices first started to come to her. Incidentally, they all claimed it was the visions that had driven her mad. Only Rembrandt and Ariel knew the truth. It had been the sounds and the voices. It had always been the sounds and the voices. When Da'an was first given Ma'el's power to read minds, she had no idea just how much noise went on inside an average mind. Millions of innocent conscious and unconscious thoughts race a mile a minute inside the mind.

Then, there was the feedback. The feedback could only be described as the sound neurons made while sending signals from the mind to the rest of the body to perform rudimentary functions. Most people go on without giving those functions a second thought, much less understanding it, unless there is a problem. Why should they? If the sentient being had to spend all of his time working the many functions his many different systems performed, he simply could not exist. If he made one mistake, it would all end in a second. It was the miracle of the mind—the ability the of subconscious to learn and retain all the information needed to regulate as complex a system as the sentient body without giving the conscious any reason to worry about it.

But that didn't mean Da'an had to be the one to hear all about it. It didn't mean that she had to hear the voices and the sounds of the mind working and regulating constantly, all day and all night, in millions of people at once.

That was why Da'an had to leave. Rembrandt had not wanted her to go. He begged her to stay. He pleaded to her that Ma'el's powers just needed some getting used to like her own powers. Eventually she would learn to control them, and they could put this whole mess behind them. But Da'an had shot back in a low and poisoned tone that she was sick of the noise that he and Ariel constantly made. Them just being around her made her want to kill herself or at least destroy her own hearing. Then, she marched out of the apartment with a small suitcase of her things and locked herself in Augur's room in his lair, completely unaware that Ariel had been listening and crying the whole time. The noise was so loud and jumbled between the two of them that she couldn't find a thought to cling to even if she wanted to.

Rembrandt had to be the one to hold and comfort Ariel. He was to explain to her that Da'an really loved her. She was simply not feeling well, and we all say terrible thing when we're not feeling well. He had spent so many days calming her and reassuring her that by the time she was ready to believe that both her guardians loved her unconditionally, she and Rembrandt received the terrible news that Da'an had been brutally attacked and injured by Zo'or. Liam got to watch Da'an finally go over the edge, but Rembrandt had seen enough. He came to see her one time and he stayed with her until she fell asleep, but then he walked out and never came back.

Until now. The word was that Da'an was locked in a maximum-security mental hospital. Dr. Curzon had placed her there, but no one knew it was she. Only Ta'lay, Curzon, and the psychiatrist that had given up all hope of getting through to her were allowed access to see her. Rembrandt left Ariel with Su'ki, her tutor, and followed Ta'lay down a long white corridor, passing doors on each side of him thick enough to be its own bank vault. Ta'lay had been changed by Da'an weeks ago. Her eyes retained that blue that all Taelons and Espelons had, but her body had changed considerably. She was a slender and quite beautiful woman with milky white skin and long blond hair—even longer than Renee's. She had not given it any kind of curl, but it still retained quite a bit of volume and thickness that covered her artificial-looking ears. Most Espelon females grew their hair long for that reason, especially those brave souls who had once hidden themselves among the Taelon implant and volunteer corps. Ta'lay wore the familiar white doctor's coat under a blue dress she had borrowed from Renee that she had told Rembrandt was terribly uncomfortable and tight.

"She hasn't said anything ever since it happened, until recently that is."

"What did she say?"

"_She's_ not saying anything."

"I don't get it."

"Words are coming from her mouth, but the voice is wrong."

"What does it sound like?"

"It sounds like a man. The psychiatrist spent three weeks trying to get her to talk in her own voice—just trying to get her to talk to him."

"She wouldn't talk to him."

"Whenever the psychiatrist tried to speak to her, she became completely catatonic. He would spend hours trying to get through to her using every technique he could think of. Nothing worked. He finally gave up and left."

"Did he know she's an alien and that she's psychic?"

"We probably should have told him that. Dr. Park insisted we not tell him."

"Dr. Park? What happened to Dr. Curzon?"

"Curzon has other patients and other issues. Besides Dr. Park is the more knowledgeable human in alien affairs. She just keeps a lower profile. Apparently, she hasn't been the same since Jonathan Doors died."

"Love interest?"

"Apparently."

They finally made it to her room and stopped.

"Interesting. Well, if the psychiatrist can't get through to her, why do you need me? What can I do that some psychiatrist can't?"

A low and slow tone. "She's been asking for you."

A pause. "Excuse me?"

"Dr. Park believes that a familiar face may bring out the Da'an we both know, so when she started asking for you, Park told me to contact you immediately."

"Why is she asking for me?"

"She refuses to tell us. Apparently this conversation is not for impure minds."

"I'm a pure mind to her?"

"Absolutely not. She just wants to talk to you. It is important, she says."

No response.

"Are you certain you are ready to do this?"

"No. Not in the least."

"We have people waiting outside in case anything should happen. I can safely say however that she has never attacked anyone. Everything is ready. You simply need to acknowledge that she will not appear as the person you remember."

"What'll she look like?"

"Pale, ghostly, with white strands and white eyes. She should be wearing a straight jacket, but I would not be surprised if she hasn't already escaped from it. She always breaks out of those things, but when we put them back on she shows no resistance. I think she enjoys the whole process. In any case, if she is out of the straight jacket she will be sitting on the bed in hospital pajamas. Her strands have grown out longer too. Are you picturing this in your head, or are you preparing yourself for the real picture?"

A dry tone. "A little from column A and a little from column B."

"Just be careful what you say around her. If you say the wrong thing, she will turn herself off from you completely."

"What's the right thing to say?"

"I'm sure she will tell you when you get inside. Cheerio, good luck, and whatnot. I will be right here when you are ready to leave."

Rembrandt waited for Ta'lay to open the door, which for all its bulk was quite silent. He walked into a bright white room with a metal chair sitting in front of a sheet-less bed. The walls were those white padded ones he had seen in the movies. Sitting on the bed with the straight jacket tossed aside as Ta'lay had predicted was she. Da'an. His Da'an. She was cross-legged with white hair so long that it passed her form and spread out on the light and obviously hard mattress. Her eyes were that pupil-less white that Ta'lay had warned him about, but they were not as he had expected. These white eyes were glowing, as if they were not eyes but rather tiny light bulbs. As he hesitantly sat in the chair, somewhat startled but not afraid of those white eyes, he noticed them beginning to dim. They dimmed to that what he had expected.

"Mr. Delancey. I have been expecting you," a raspy masculine voice said.

* * *

Tay'jay was giving Liam sparring lessons in the workout room at the ANA building. It was equipped with a weight training room, a sparring mat that could turn into any kind of simulation room, and small indoor pool. Tay'jay was sick of seeing humans pretend to know how to do Pa'dar and he made it his mission to teach all his new human friends how to do it right. Of course, Taelon Pa'dar was so difficult that most of them quit before they could get the beating Tay'jay still believed they rightfully deserved for thinking they had what it took to be a real Pa'dar warrior. Liam was the exception. Not only had he stuck with it, but also every time Tay'jay knocked him down (hard at times) Liam got up and asked to go again. Tay'jay could understand why Da'an liked and admired Liam so much. 

"So is it true that October's Satan's month?" Tay'jay asked Liam.

"What are you talking about?" Liam asked.

"I was walking down the street with Street—hey that's kinda funny. Anyway I was going with Street to get some croissants—she likes those things for some reason. I don't see it—and some weirdo guy came up to us saying the devil is coming on All Hallows Eve. Street said that was some kind of holiday at the end of October."

"All Hallows Eve. You mean Halloween?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Halloween is an old Druid festival. It was a celebration of the fall harvest and a time to pay respects to the departed ones and the ancestors. It supposedly was the one night of the year where the spirits of the dead could return to the earth. When Christianity was on the rise, it conflicted with the old traditions. Anything non-Christian was dismissed as pagan and equaled with satanic activity. So some fundamentalist extremely conservative Christians still believe that Halloween is a satanic holiday, and the fact that we associate the whole month of October with it would make October Satan's month."

"Well if it's believed to be satanic, how come it's so popular?"

"Most people don't consider Halloween to be satanic. It's just a fun night where you can dress up as a ghoul, get candy and cause mischief. It's good fun. Halloween's turned into a secular holiday. Everybody celebrates it here in America no matter what religion they are. Besides, big business companies have invested too much in the whole idea of Halloween to let some crazy Bible-thumping, end-of-the-world fundamentalists tell them it's a satanic holiday. The candy companies rake in the most profits on Halloween."

"So holidays on your planet are really capitalized for business profit," Tay'jay surmised. "Interesting. We don't do that kinda thing on Taelon."

"Yeah, Da'an told me that. She said you don't have any real holidays for festivals except for the _Pa'tranah_ festival and the _Pau'li_ rites."

"Oh yeah. I remember _Pa'tranah_. It was the only day in the Taelon year that people could let loose and do what they wanted regardless of the consequences. It was a celebration of the anniversary of the planet combined with a lead-up to the _Ka'ar'paaj_ ritual. I guess the closest thing you guys have to it is Mardi Gras."

"What about _Pau'li_?"

"Eh, you wouldn't like _Pau'li_. It's a celebration of when all the tribes of the Taelons got together to defeat the Kimera. _Pau'li_ was the word the Taelons used for the last battle we fought to defeat the Kimera. It was named after the _Pau'li_ mountain range, the tallest range on the planet. I forget exactly what the reference was because we sure as hell didn't fight them there."

"What do you do on _Pau'li_?" Liam asked, refusing to show his offense over the fact that they had made a festival out of the brutal slaughter of his species.

"_Pau'li_ was an annual festival when the Pa'dar rituals were held. Pa'dar warriors conducted battles at the foot of Mount _Kritana_, the tallest mountain on the planet, simulating the real ones that were fought years ago. Nobody dies. They just get hurt real bad. It's kinda like a boxing match or martial arts tournament of champions. It was kinda the closest thing Taelons had to a sporting event, but we didn't see it as entertainment."

"Why's that?"

"It was an honor-slash-holy thing. Pa'dar's a form of purification. _Ka'ar'paaj_ is a purification ritual for those who aren't strong enough to be Pa'dar warriors. Both _Pau'li_ and _Pa'tranah_ are held at the start of the month of Gon, the holiest month on the Taelon calendar. _Pa'tranah_ goes on at the beginning of the month and _Pau'li_ and _Ka'ar'paaj_ start on the last twelve days of the month. _Pau'li's_ considered a time to honor the ancient Taelon warriors. That's also why it's associated with the battle they fought to defeat the Kimera. When Taelons go to the tournaments, they're not going to be entertained. Showing up at a _Pau'li_ tournament is considered a form of honoring Pa'dar warriors. It's an appreciation thing, not an entertainment event."

"Did Da'an ever go to the _Pau'li_ tournaments?"

"Uh…no, not particularly," Tay'jay said a little solemnly. "It's kinda complicated how she felt about Pa'dar. To this day, I still don't quite grasp her feelings about it. Pa'dar is kinda the equivalent to human martial arts. Some sects use it strictly for meditation and exercise purposes, and others use it as self-defense training. I guess she favored Pa'dar strictly as a ritual. She was opposed to the fact that Pa'dar warriors were still being sent to the battlefield. I guess she never attended a ritual because Pa'dar leaders used it as a recruiting tool. She thought this took away from the prestige of the caste. But I always liked to kid myself into believing it was because she was so focused on completing _Ka'ar'paaj_ at that time."

"Huh. It must have been really hard for you," Liam said in a comforting tone. He may not have liked the idea of _Pau'li_, but he could see that it held a special place in Tay'jay's heart—a bitter one but special all the same. He was willing to let his prejudices subside for a moment.

"Yeah, well…"

"You're thinking about her now, aren't you?"

"Don't get me wrong, Liam. I know she's gonna be okay, but sometimes I have these moments of weakness where I worry about her nonstop. But I know that she'll be okay. I just know it. Why? Are you thinking about her?"

Liam wished that he could share Tay'jay's optimism, but for him the situation looked bleak. Maybe Tay'jay was disillusioning himself again, forcing himself to believe that she would overcome this malady and everything would fall back to normal afterwards. Those momentary "weaknesses" as he referred to them could actually be the reality of the situation forcing him to cast his delusions aside. But he let Tay'jay have his delusions. If they helped him get through the day, who was Liam to question them? "I never stopped thinking about her. I went to see her a couple of times when she first got sent away. Renee and Park said I shouldn't go anymore. Have you seen her?"

"Ta'lay tells me about her," Tay'jay said looking away from Liam. He appeared reluctant to talk about it. "I heard what happened between you and Renee. I'm sorry man. I know she's something special to you."

Liam tensed. "To tell you the truth I'm actually glad she went. It gives us some time to ourselves…but then I remember she's with Joshua and I grab the punching bag."

"Ah, she'll come back. She doesn't love him."

"She doesn't love me."

Tay'jay laughed. "You obviously haven't seen the way she looks at you. I'll tell you one thing, she don't ask Joshua to dinner at her house. If anything, he's the one who does all the asking in that relationship."

Liam relaxed his composure. "I shouldn't have ignored her for so long. She probably thinks I'm in love with Da'an."

"Ugh! That's disgusting!" Tay'jay exclaimed. "That's the kind of thing you'd expect in a Norman Bates movie. Who in the galaxy would ever be sick enough to think about you and Da'an falling in love? You're like three years old man. She's over two thousand years old! That's like… Bambi falling in love with his mother's mother's mother. Renee's got a sick mind, man."

Liam had to laugh. It wasn't at Tay'jay's disgust at the whole idea of him and Da'an being romantically involved, but rather at the fact that this was not the first time an Espelon or a Taelon had expressed their disgust at the idea. "Well, rest assured I am not now nor have I ever been in love with Da'an. I'm like you. It's just wrong, man."

"Then what is your relationship to my sister?" Tay'jay asked. "Come on. Rehearse to me what you're gonna tell Renee when she gets back."

Liam shook his head and sat cross-legged on the mat. Tay'jay joined him. "Da'an's a…she's a mentor to me. We have a kind of teacher-student relationship. Sometimes, I…even think it goes beyond that. She is the closest thing that I have ever had to a parent. We even fight like a parent and a child do, you know? I'd like to think she sees it the same way. That's always why she tries to protect me by keeping secrets. But I guess it's worked both ways. I've kept secrets from her to protect her too. That must be why I never understood why she went through hell for Zo'or. She was so much better than him. I hate the way he treated her, and I hate that I couldn't stop it."

"That thing they had could have been seen coming a mile away," Tay'jay assured. "There's not a man, woman, or god in this universe that could have stopped that train wreck from happening, even if they both tried their damndest to avoid it."

"Yeah, and look where it's gotten them. She's lost her mind, and he's dead."

"Look, what happened between Zo'or and Da'an is not your fault or anybody else's. Nobody could have done anything for those two anymore than they could have done something for you and Sandoval," Tay'jay said firmly.

It amazed Liam how quickly Tay'jay had come to terms with all of this. Sometimes Tay'jay was a complete mystery to Liam. Sometimes, he was fiercely overprotective of Da'an, but at others, like now, he acted so relaxed toward her actions and events that befell her to the point where someone could mistake it for negligence. Did Tay'jay just act solely according to his gut feelings? Was one of those gut feelings telling him that Da'an would be fine? Maybe Tay'jay had a touch of Da'an's prophetic powers that nobody knew about, that not even he knew about. Liam chuckled in his mind at that idea. Still, whatever was promoting this sudden wave of optimism that had overtaken Tay'jay, he wished that it would overtake him too.

"Now personally, I think you and Da'an are close because you two see something to be desired in the other," Tay'jay continued. "Da'an sees the son she always wanted, and you see the parent you always wanted. It also explains why Ariel's so jealous of you."

"Ariel's jealous of me?"

"She sees the way you and Da'an work together. She wants that too. Ariel wants to be just like you in Da'an's eyes."

"How do you know all this?" Liam asked.

"Partly because I've been told and partly…because I'm smart like that," Tay'jay smirked.

"Asshole," Liam muttered.

"Takes one to know one," Tay'jay shot back. "Anyway, Ariel thinks the same way you thought about Sandoval. She's got Da'an's DNA in her, so that makes Da'an a parent to her. But Da'an pays more attention to you than she does to her own flesh-and-blood. Now, partially that's Da'an's fault, but some of it isn't. Being around Ariel reminds Da'an too much of Lili, and because of what happened between those two it hurts Da'an in some ways to be near Ariel. My stance is that Ariel's gonna go two ways. She and Da'an are gonna work out their differences and become as close as you and Da'an are, or Ariel's gonna go the same way Zo'or went for the exact same reason."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh. Da'an didn't tell you," Tay'jay said a little uneasily. "Okay. When the Jaridians attacked our capitol and started the war between us, Da'an and Zo'or got captured. They used Zo'or and other stuff to psychologically torture her, and Da'an lost her mind. Zo'or got the way he was because Da'an neglected him after that. She tried to make up for it later, but neither of them were having it."

"So that explains it," Liam realized. "And now she's regressed, and Ariel's being neglected."

"That's all there is to it," Tay'jay shrugged in that same near-negligent manner that astounded Liam.

"But Da'an and Ariel have something now that she and Zo'or didn't have," Liam said.

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"A fatherly figure," Liam said. "Rembrandt."

"I don't know if that's a role Link's quite ready to embrace," Tay'jay said frankly.

"He is," Liam assured. "If there's one thing I know, it's that. He's just as in love with Da'an as I'm in love with Renee. Da'an wouldn't have rejected Ar'ron if he wasn't."

"I hope you're right," Tay'jay said solemnly. "Well, anyways…let's get back to business. Don't you have to go to work in a few?"

"Not really. The Synod's still going through realignment, and they don't quite know where to put us companion protectors yet. They haven't even named replacements for the six highest positions in the Synod yet. Until they do, I'm on paid leave."

"Must be nice."

"It'd be nice if Hubble wasn't bugging me every day about the upcoming elections. The ANA's doing some serious campaigning to get resistance sympathizers in legislation this year. We've never had a big opportunity like this before."

"So I've heard," Tay'jay said passively. "All right, Kincaid. Stand and get in sparring position. We're gonna do this one more time, and then I'll tell you why I'm always kicking your ass in less than a minute."

"Not this time, TJ. I've learned from my mistakes."

"Oh learned from them, have you?" Tay'jay said in a Yoda-like voice. "Will not get ass kicked as badly this time, will you?"

Liam silenced Tay'jay by taking the first strike, but Tay'jay was ready for him. He blocked the blow with his own staff, and a new sparring match was born. Liam fought valiantly, more valiantly than he ever had. It was enough to at least impress Tay'jay, but not enough to beat him. The Pa'dar warrior, in a move Liam had never seen in any human or Taelon Pa'dar match before, leapt over his foe and jammed his staff in Liam's face in midair. Liam had to duck to avoid getting poked in the eyes, but as he crouched, he felt his staff suddenly leave his hands. When he rose and turned to face Tay'jay, the alien stood in triumph with both staffs in his hands.

"Not bad," Tay'jay complimented. "I might have actually broken a sweat that time if I were human."

"Show-off," Liam grumbled.

"Aw, don't be so mopey," Tay'jay said. "It took me fifteen years to finally beat my master in a match. It was the happiest day of our lives."

Liam laughed.

"Anyways," Tay'jay said tossing Liam's staff back to him, "you ready to learn some real Pa'dar now?"

Liam stood in a stance with the staff mimicking that of a Taelon Pa'dar warrior. "I think I am."

It was Tay'jay's turn to laugh. "This is gonna be a long day."

* * *

Rembrandt had not responded to the voice for several minutes, and the voice had not said anything more. Rembrandt didn't appreciate the standoff, but he had nothing he could use to break the ice. Responding to the claim he felt would only lead him into a trap, but he had nothing else to talk about. It was a dilemma that should not have been such. 

The voice recognized his predicament and it sympathized. "I know what you are thinking. Well you need not worry. Thus far, I am the only one who knows your little secret."

"When you refer to yourself, to whom are you really referring?"

A smile slowly appeared on the voice's face. "You are clever. I can see why you are as highly ranked as you are. I apologize. A valiant military hero such as yourself should always be addressed by rank, Brigadier General."

"You respect me. That's progress I guess. Do you respect me enough to give me a name?"

"Does it have to be my name or the name of my sister?"

"Sister? But then that would make you…"

"Indeed."

"She said you were dead. Everybody knows you're dead. You can't be him."

"What would you like to call me then?"

Rembrandt sighed with frustration. Then, he remembered what Ta'lay had told him about the voice becoming completely catatonic to the psychiatrist who had last tried to force Da'an to surface. He decided that if he had any chance of at least getting past today, he would have to humor this voice and this personality that mocked the real deal. "No. It's okay. Your name's fine…Ma'el."

"Thank _you_ for respecting _me_," Ma'el said a little haughtily.

"I guess I have to respect you for dealing with this power as long as you did," Rembrandt said, playing along.

"I had help."

"From whom?"

"From her."

"How did she help you?"

"I do not believe that it would be in the best interests of you or my sister for me to reveal such information right now."

"But you do think it's in our best interests to call me out?"

"Call you out to whom? This is a secret between friends. No one out there can hear us. The only access those fools outside have is a panic button by the door and a health monitoring system whose function I have long since abolished. Besides, she revealed her secret to you long ago. It is only fair that you tell her yours."

Rembrandt nodded and folded his arms. "Much of what I told her wasn't a lie. For the most part it was true. I just twisted it around a little."

"Do you think she knows?"

"I can't imagine her not knowing. She's a bright person. It's not her that I'm worried about."

"Your thoughts turn to that fool Hubble Urick. Why worry about him and what he knows? Do you honestly believe he is stupid enough to open a classified military file? He would be arrested in a second."

"He was stupid enough to get it and hand it off to Da'an."

"Oh please. That file was riddled with alterations and deletions, and the only reason Hubble got access to it was that he invoked the Freedom of Information Act. And if he did know, your superiors would be the first to tell you about it. They monitor him just as closely as you do."

"I'm not the only one who's been sent here."

"I know this. Let me be clear. There is nothing I know that she does not know as well. How do you think I uncovered the truth?"

"I don't know how you uncovered the truth. If it wasn't from the file, then…"

"You've been dreaming about it. You've been thinking about it. I shall explain so that there is no confusion. The power you refer to as telepathy acts as both a broadcast and a reception to all neural activity. It is not simply your thoughts that are received. Everything is. The simple but vigorous problem my sister suffers from is that she has not fully grasped the concept of how to sort all this new incoming information."

"But you do?"

"Indeed. I am Ma'el. I know of the burden from which you suffer. You hide it well. You do not fear that she will reject you if you tell her. If it were just that, you would not have bothered to court her for so long. You would not be here now. You do not entirely grasp the consequences of telling her or anyone else you care for. However, you are set in this belief that whatever consequence presents itself, it will be malicious towards you and the ones you tell. You know things will change, but you do not know precisely how they will change. That is your greatest fear. You fear the unknown. You have ever since you were sent to war."

"You seem to have me down pretty well."

"Your tone is quite haughty."

"It's not intentional, I assure you. To be honest, I respect someone with that kind of power. And I'm appreciative that you don't tell anyone else. It's a compliment."

"Thank you."

"My burden right now is Da'an. I want to know what happened to her. Is she okay? Can I see her? I'm not like that psychiatrist. I don't think she's some warped schizophrenic, and I'm not out to fix her or you. All I want to do is see if she's all right. I want her to hear me."

Ma'el chuckled slowly. "She _can_ hear you."

Rembrandt winced. "A-Are you sure?"

"She and I are connected. We are connected through this power I bestowed upon her. She hears everything I hear and more. However, she is not listening at this moment in time."

"I don't understand."

"She hears us speaking, but she hears so much more that she has tuned it out. My sister is not insane nor is she comatose. She is…somewhere in between."

"So she's hearing us speak, but she's also hearing our thoughts too."

"Our thoughts, her thoughts, our memories—everything."

"And because she hears all of that, she can't deal with it."

"As I said, she has not completely grasped the concept of sorting the vast amount of information she is receiving."

"So what's all this make you? A stand-in until she's figured all this out?"

"You could say that."

"How long will it take?"

"Well, that really depends on what she wants, does it not?"

"I want to speak to her," Rembrandt said softly but firmly.

Ma'el stood and began slowly pacing the room. The long strands of hair swayed by his sides like a skirt.

Rembrandt stayed firmly in his seat, waiting for the anomaly that had overtaken his beloved to finish his rhythmic pacing.

"An idea has come to me," Ma'el said, stopping and pushing the strands behind his back. "I propose an exchange."

"An exchange of what?"

"Information. You tell me what I want to know, and I will tell you anything you want to know. In the end, if this proves satisfactory to me, I will release her to you, regardless of her condition. Is that a fair exchange?"

"It depends on what information you desire from me."

"Actually, it depends on what information _you_ desire from _me_."

"Fine. I want to understand. I want to understand what's happening to Da'an. And then I want you to tell me why's she so damn important in this war. I want to know about her and you. Everything."

"In that case, there is only one equitable thing you may provide me in return."

"Yeah," Rembrandt said in comprehension, "everything about myself."

"Indeed."

"But don't you already know about me?"

"I do not know everything."

"Fine. I'll tell you everything."

"It must be truthful."

"Then, you be truthful too."

"I can assure you that I will."

"Then, you don't have anything to worry about."

"Excellent." Ma'el returned to his former position on the bed. The only difference was that he was staring directly into Rembrandt's eyes. He was intrigued when he saw a dull translucent light circulate through Rembrandt, the only visible symptom of the brigadier general's anxiety in all of this.

"So should you start, or should I?" Rembrandt asked.

"The most valuable information is always obtained from the seeds of question. You have a question to ask me. Ask."

Rembrandt began to feel that a portion of Da'an's mental powers had overtaken him. The millions of questions rushing through his head threatened to drive him to such madness that he was ready to storm out of the room. However, he wanted to know more about Da'an. What was there to ask? No, there was too much to ask. That was the problem. How could he formulate everything he had ever wanted to know about Da'an in a single question? Those empty white eyes were not helping the situation. It was his turn to leave his seat and start pacing around the room. He expected Ma'el to say something. It didn't have to be offensive. He just expected to hear something. However, the anomaly sat there as firm and unmoving as a statue, waiting patiently for Rembrandt to gather his thoughts into a question. Suddenly, a question came to Rembrandt. It didn't constitute everything he wanted to know about Da'an, but it made for a great starting point. With his composure regained, he sat back in the seat and faced Ma'el.

"What happened to Da'an when she drowned?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: To Eternal Dimension

Da'an, a voice that I recall, picture if you will a face, eyes blue and curious, blue curious and worried, his face is pale white with a large round head, his cheeks are tender and soft, lips are small and white, but still pretty, pretty to at least one, there is another face behind the person, picture if you will a face, a face behind the face, a radiant purple glow inside with a blue aura outside, a face so transparent that the lines of energy can been seen flowing like tiny creeks, the veins of an energy being, with a healthy violet purple glow, no, he is not worthy, he is a good soul and he means well, but he is not worthy, he is not worthy, an explosion, a terrible explosion, a sharp pain in my leg, there is blood on my hands, but how, from where, who caused the explosion, I need to dig deeper, something terrible is afoot, a traitor, a wolf in sheep's clothing, draw him out, I should have known, he is touching me, knock it off, let me look deeper, leave me be, who is this face, why can I not remember this face, the traitor, did he cause the explosion, where is the explosion, why am I in pain, in terrible pain, it will not go away, just walking makes the pain worse, and this blood on my hands, no, a terrible theory, did I cause this explosion, is it my fault, no, but who then, pain replaced with pain, no, get out, who are you, what are you doing here, get out of my mind you wench, she is not worthy, impure, infidel, get out, kill her, hurt her, destroy her, no purify her, Da'an, a name lost in a distant memory, can't remember, a name, my name, somebody's voice, garbled, can barely hear, a memory, possibly, he says, I can purify her, I can purify her body, mind and soul, Da'an please stop, let him go, let him go, stop, the body flies across the room, I have purified her, I can purify her, Ta'lay, oh my God, what happened, what did she do to him, him, don't you mean her, Da'an, did you do this, what did you do, she won't answer me, she's catatonic, that man, the one who held me, what is his name, Da'an, no, my name, did I do this, can't take another minute of this, get Ta'lay to the hospital, hurry, don't want to be alone, Ta'lay, I'm calling Liam, but that man, so many faces and voices, can't remember.

* * *

Ma'el groaned from a very terrible slumber. His head writhed with pain, and the rest of his body shivered from the restless slumber. He tried to leave his cot and found himself so disoriented that he dropped to the floor. Every time he tried to move, the room twisted and turned like two magnets of the same polarity trying to connect but failing miserably.

"Ma'el?" Paul's voice called from outside. "May I come in?"

"Yes, please," Ma'el called softly, shivering from shock.

Paul entered the room and immediately helped Ma'el stand. "What in the world happened? Did you have another vision?"

"I don't know what I had, Paul," Ma'el shuddered. "Why are you here?"

"The technicians say the generators are finished. We are therefore ready to remove the interdimensional power core," Paul explained. "However, if you are feeling unwell…"

"No!" Ma'el protested before Paul could even suggest that they postpone their plans. "Take me outside now."

Paul gave Ma'el a stern look, scolding the Taelon for his stubbornness.

"Do as I say Paul!" Ma'el gritted as sternly between his teeth. "Now!"

Paul gripped Ma'el's arms firmly as the Taelon attempted to walk out of his own room. Ma'el felt ridiculous. He felt like a baby learning to walk. Finally, he regained his orientation enough to walk on his own and none too soon. His eldest and most distinguished followers were situated outside with several of the construction team waiting for his word. Sonya stood next to a man that looked familiar to him. He was white, wearing a light blue jumpsuit. He had dark brown hair in the shape of a bowl over his head. He was very tall, taller than Ma'el possibly. Ma'el did not particularly like how he protruded his thinly shaped nose upward. The way he held his head high, his eyes had to look down upon everyone in front of him. This was a man with a large ego. However, as Ma'el walked closer to Sonya and him, he saw the head of this man lower slightly, just enough so that he and Ma'el could make eye contact as equals. Despite his feelings of superiority, this man showed nothing but loyalty to Ma'el. This man displayed all the signs of an extremist, and from the profile, Ma'el remembered his name.

"Salvius," Ma'el said. "One of my most loyal servants. I trust construction has been proceeding according to plan?"

"Everything is on schedule, my friend," the man replied. "We are ready to receive the power cores from your interdimensional drives and your weapons compartments."

"Excellent," Ma'el said tonelessly, noting how Salvius Julianus had called him his friend warily. "Give me just one moment before we proceed."

"Anything for you, my friend," Salvius replied with a humble bow.

Salvius was another of the few humans he allowed on his ship. His origin from the Roman Empire plagued him with a superiority complex that was only surpassed by his unbending loyalty to Ma'el. Ma'el particularly liked having him around because he was a perfectionist. He expected nothing but perfection from his followers, which made him a natural leader in Ma'el's eyes. Therefore, Ma'el was willing to overlook his fanatical tendencies. He even saw those tendencies as a possible advantage.

Ma'el motioned for Salvius and Sonya to follow him and Paul.

"Are you feeling all right, sire?" Sonya asked softly.

"Fine," Ma'el said softly, escorting her inside to where the pilot's seat was. He activated the ship and asked Sonya to sit in the pilot's chair. "Do you see that red figure to your left?"

"Yes," Sonya answered pointing to the red bar on the screen to confirm that she knew.

"It means that the interdimensional core level is active. Let me know when the bar disappears. That will mean that it is safe to extract the core."

"All right," Sonya nodded.

"Do not touch anything while you are in here," Ma'el warned. "Foreign hands on my consoles without the proper clearance activates the weapons systems and suspends all access to the ship save my energy signature. Simply watch the bar and yell when it has disappeared. Understand?"

"Perfectly," Sonya assured.

"Good. Salvius, you stay with Sonya. Paul, follow me," Ma'el told Paul and they left Sonya to her duty.

Paul followed Ma'el to the rear of his ship.

With a wave of his hand, the bioslurry parted revealing the core glowing blue. "Stay here, Paul, with the removal crew."

Ma'el then walked back inside his ship where the small bridge awaited. He activated the ship's control system and glided his hands across Taelon symbols and figures that only he could decipher. That was when Sonya saw the red bar gradually fall.

"The bar is disappearing!" she yelled from the pilot's chair. "It is gone now."

"Thank you," Ma'el called to her.

Julianus walked outside and yelled for Paul to remove the core.

Paul and a technician carefully extracted the fragile blue cylinder and secured it inside a cryo-frozen case made of Taelon metals. It came standard with every Taelon ship just in case the core needed to be extracted in an emergency.

Ma'el returned to the ship and told Sonya to leave. "I am about to power down the weapons system."

Sonya nodded and left without hesitation. She joined Paul and the crew on the roof of the ship, where the small power coils that fueled the weapons and Ma'el's defense shield lay.

"Ma'el says to open the compartments now!" Salvius yelled from the bottom.

Paul, Sonya, and the crews opened the compartments simultaneously.

Ma'el overrode his security system and told the computer to power down the weapons. He had just finished when suddenly a brilliant white light flashed in front of his eyes. A powerful blow struck him in the stomach. A vision had hit him like a ton of bricks. He pushed himself off the table and collapsed to his knees.

"Ma'el!" Julianus cried, rushing to his aid. However, when he reached the downed Taelon, his hand accidentally hit the control console as he tried to help Ma'el to his feet.

"No!" Ma'el cried in terror. He had not yet deactivated the self-defense mechanism. Julanius's mistake coupled with the fact that Ma'el had not deactivated the ship's defense mechanism caused a commotion of alarms to go off and the weapons to activate on automatic defense.

Sonya was the first to try and remove the weapons coil. A virtual glass shield sealed access to the coil and shocked her hand. A small portion of the ship rose with a glowing blue eye pointed straight at Sonya.

Paul had told the others to get off the roof when he saw what happened to Sonya and had heard the alarms go off. They had immediately complied, but Sonya was frozen in fear. The weapon powered and prepared to finish her off, but Paul grabbed her and pulled her away just before the huge energy blast could tear her to shreds. The blast bounced off the virtual glass shield that had surrounded the ship and impacted the stone roof of the cavern. Loose boulders rained down on Ma'el's followers and they fled to the tunnels.

By this time, Ma'el had left the ship to ascertain the damage. The auto-gun had targeted Paul and Sonya and was not responding to his commands. He had managed to power down the rest of the weapons, but the sensors to this weapon were jammed. He had been locked out of access to turn it off. Paul and Sonya were running for their lives as the gun fired round after round at them. Ma'el called for them to retreat to the tunnels, but he knew they would never make it.

He ran towards the fleeing couple as the gun fired one more blast. Ma'el knew it would hit. If only he could get to it in time… Suddenly a white flash of light appeared before his face, and a warm feeling enveloped him. He had never felt this feeling before in his life, but when the flash subsided, he was standing directly in front of Paul and Sonya about to be hit by the powerful energy blast.

"Ma'el!" Paul cried.

Ma'el instinctually crossed his arms over his face. The blast impacted in front of him with such a huge force that it knocked him into Paul and Sonya. However, he was not injured. With an instinct he had never felt before, he glared at the weapon and slammed his hands together. As if the gun had been between those palms, it flattened with a loud crunch followed by the explosion that Ma'el knew was from the power coil.

Before Sonya and Paul could inquire about what had just happened, Ma'el marched into the crowd of frightened followers and jerked his hand and sharply pointed into the crowd. Salvius Julianus stumbled toward and collapsed before Ma'el's feet as if an unseen force had tugged him and launched him to his resting place.

"You daft fool!" Ma'el whispered harshly, lifting his hand upward. Salvius' body rose and floated tightly with his limbs stretched outward so hard that everyone could see the pain poor Salvius underwent. "Your recklessness nearly cost my colleagues their lives! Explain yourself!"

"I…never meant to hurt them," Salvius winced in awful pain. He felt like his arms and legs would pop out of their sockets any second. "I was only…trying to help! You were…in pain. I was trying to aid you."

"If you endanger the lives of anyone else in this sect ever again, I will tear you limb from limb myself! Is that understood?" Ma'el yelled turning his back on Salvius and thereby releasing him.

Many people in the cavern wanted an explanation for Ma'el's brutal actions. They had never seen him so angry before, but Ma'el returned to the ship before anyone could get close enough to ask, and he finished what he had started. When he returned, he appeared much calmer than he had been and he swiftly walked to assess Sonya and Paul.

"Are either of you injured?" he asked warmly.

"No, my lord," Sonya replied. "We are fine. Ma'el? I do not understand what happened. How did you do those things?"

That was when the whole of what he had done hit him. He was just as shocked as they were, and he bent his head downward to stare at his own hands. "I don't know."

Paul hesitantly reached for Ma'el's hand, trying not to startle the bewildered Taelon even further than he already was. Ma'el darted his head upward to acknowledge Paul, but he did not say anything to him. He simply turned to the followers, who had gathered to help Salvius to his feet, and said, "Go up there and finish what you started. Then take those supplies back to the labyrinth. I will be along shortly. Do nothing until I come."

* * *

The followers waited anxiously with the supplies at the heart of the labyrinth. The tunnels were all finished, but they still had not covered the crystal floor they had created. They also needed to finish installing the lights. It had taken them over fifty years to come to this stage, and the followers were eagerly anticipating the completion. Recently, they had uncovered a pool of trapped lava, the heat from which would power the geothermal generator they had constructed. Many of the tools they had used came from their own civilizations, but the most important ones came about from the efforts of Paul and Ma'el and their travels through the fourth dimension of time.

They had traveled for centuries, risking their lives and their detection by both the priests and the Synod, until Ma'el received a message from Nye telling him that the Taelons had banned all forms of time travel and wanted all the technology destroyed. Ma'el, compelled by the Commonality at this time, had no choice but to return to Earth with Paul and destroy the time traveling engine.

Paul waited and watched while Julianus conversed with the other followers about how he was going to earn Ma'el's forgiveness. He watched Sonya converse with the followers trying to defend Ma'el's behavior. What she could not understand was how Ma'el had managed to smash the huge automatic gun without touching it. The followers all chattered excitedly trying to theorize what had happened. The most enthusiastic said that Ma'el was growing more powerful, which was why he had to be so reclusive lately. This new ability was a symptom of his growing powers. The least enthusiastic said that Ma'el had always had the ability, and his thousands of years of experience had simply taught him to control it so well that he barely had to use it. His sudden unleashing of the power upon Julianus said to them that something was wrong with their messiah.

Paul knew Ma'el too well to ever believe the enthusiasts' theories. He and Ma'el shared virtually everything. They had been alive together for so long that there was nothing to hide anymore. That Ma'el was keeping things from him now meant that something was terribly wrong.

His thoughts drifted to Sonya. She was one of the last followers Ma'el had taken. They had stumbled across her while doing research in Russia. Sonya had been a farmer's daughter pledged to marry a man she did not love. She ran away one night and stumbled into a pack of wolves. Paul saved her, but she had already been badly injured. He brought her to Ma'el, who was very reluctant to heal her until he took her hand and read her mind. Ma'el never told him what had caused him to change his mind, but whatever the reason, Ma'el agreed to heal her. She pledged her life to Ma'el and Paul from then on and followed them like a curious puppy every chance she got.

She was a beautiful girl. The cryo-beds Ma'el had put his followers in had treated her well through the years. The only sign of mistreatment from the beds was the constant darkening of her red hair. Her eyes were a gentle emerald color, and her skin was white as ivory. When she finished conversing with the followers, she walked nervously towards Paul.

"Had you not been there," she started.

"You need not finish. There is no use contemplating what has not happened."

"I wanted to thank you," Sonya said.

"You need not thank me," Paul said. "It was really Ma'el who saved us both."

"You give yourself too little credit," Sonya chuckled. "Perhaps this is why Ma'el likes you so. You are a humble man."

"I was not always this humble," Paul said. "When I first encountered Ma'el, I felt like I was invincible. I always wanted to be the best at everything. Ma'el gave me wisdom and taught me control, and in return I taught him how to feel."

"What was Ma'el like when you first met him? Was he the same as he is now?"

"No," Paul replied. "He was very cold and calculating. He did not care for humanity. All he wanted to do was learn about us in any way he could. He did not care how he hurt people along the way. I taught him to care when I saved his life."

"How did you save his life?"

Paul smiled. He had not thought about that in a long time. When he and Ma'el used to reflect on that moment together they would laugh. He certainly had not shared it with the rest of his colleagues. But upon her asking him, Paul found that he could not resist catering to Sonya's gentle curiosity. In fact, he found it instinctual with her. He had no reserves in his voice when he told her the tale. Talking to Sonya always felt as natural as conversing with an old friend or relative. "The first time I saw Ma'el was when he captured me. I was the first live human he had ever caught. His intention was to experiment on me and study me. Then, he would dump me. Whether or not I survived the process was none of his concern. I showed so much resistance to him, however, that he grew to like me. He liked a challenge, he said. He and I communicated through telepathy at first. In my mind, he issued to me his own challenge in response to the challenge I showed him. He said that his intention was merely to learn all about me that he could. He found that it is easier to gain such information when it is exchanged willfully and mutually. He told me that he would set me free, and in return, he expected me to meet with him in secret every other night. He would teach me everything that he knew if I willfully accompanied him. Of course, I thought this ridiculous, but eventually he manipulated me into agreeing."

"How did he do that?" Sonya asked.

"I am not quite sure. By the time I was irritated enough to agree to the deal, he had practically convinced me not to agree. I think he spoke in such a manner because he knew that as resistant as I was against him, I would naturally do the opposite of whatever he proposed. He caught me with my own anger. Our meetings at first were very hostile. We treated each other horribly, and we barely exchanged any meaningful words. Mostly we exchanged words of anger and disgust. In a rage one day, I walked away from him and told him I never wanted to see him again. Many days and nights passed, and I was certain that the misery was over. Suddenly, in broad daylight, he came to me and asked me very reluctantly to accompany him. I was amazed because he spoke in my native language perfectly. He said that from many days of studying us in our natural habitats and based on the people he had captured and released in his studies, he had mastered our language, and now he wanted to take his studies outside the village. He needed a guide, and I was the only one he trusted."

"Did you agree?"

"He gave me the following day and night to think about his offer. I do not know why I agreed. I suppose it was because of my sense of honor and duty. I was being groomed by my people to become a soldier. They taught me to respect the land and to honor all creatures big and small. I suppose I felt that if I did not, then I was lowering myself by disrespecting him the way he disrespected me. But I did agree, and I accompanied him throughout the land. We spent whole days exploring the terrain and studying the creatures. He asked me so many questions. He wanted to know everything about our land from the annual weather patterns to the names and characteristics of the creatures that grazed the land. I realized that his wanting to learn showed that he did have some sort of respect for my people and me. I found myself growing warmer and warmer towards him during those expeditions. I believe he felt the same way because eventually our conversations started drifting elsewhere."

"To where?"

"He asked me about me and my people. He wanted to know about our customs and our practices. He wanted to know why we conducted our practices, and I must admit that many of his questions had me perplexed. That is also how I realized his like for me was growing. Whenever I could not answer a question, he simply smiled and said it was not important. He did not want me to worry myself with answering his questions as much as he did before. Eventually, we began venturing further and further away from home. Our quests grew much longer. One night, we stayed for too long, and it began to rain. The storm had shown us signs of its coming since the afternoon of that day. However, neither of us really paid attention. We were too curious and we must have believed we could still beat the storm and return to our respective homes in time. However, we were wrong. We were caught in the storm, and it was a violent storm. He and I raced to seek shelter as quickly as we could, and in our rush we stumbled across the river where my people received their water. The rain had raised the water level very high, and because it was dark, it was very difficult to cross. We came to an old bridge that was too old to be of any use to anyone, but we were so desperate that we risked crossing it. One of the planks broke, and Ma'el fell into the river."

Sonya gasped. She was very much swept in the wholehearted tone of Paul's words and the adventurous context of the story. Her wide eyes reminded Paul of the young children he used to entertain when his father had families as guests in their house.

"Instinctively, I leapt into the river and swam after him. Ma'el does know how to swim, but he is not skilled enough to pull himself out of a churning river. Eventually, the waves overpowered him and he sank. All I had as a guide to his body was a faint blue light. I swam as hard and as fast as I could. I treated the situation as if it were my father or my mother drowning in the waters. I reached for him, and when I felt his hand touch me, I pulled him with all my strength and surfaced. He was unconscious, but not drowned. The stream thrust us down the river, and I was struggling to keep us both afloat. Luckily, we stumbled across a small island, so small that it could barely fit the two of us on it. I pulled him and myself on to the island, and I kept him warm throughout the storm and the night. Occasionally, I felt him drift in and out of consciousness. I had never seen him so vulnerable and I had never felt such a strong desire to protect him as I did that night. By the time morning came, we were both so exhausted that we slept through most of the day. I do not remember how long it was or how we managed to keep ourselves from falling back into the river. However, Ma'el regained consciousness first and awoke me. He asked me why I had saved him. I told him that it was of no importance in that same tone he used to answer me whenever I was plagued with a question I could not answer. Ma'el smiled and said he understood, and from then on, he never asked me why again. After he and I had ample time to recover from that incident, Ma'el came to me and told me he was leaving my home in search of some place else to explore. He wanted me to accompany him in his travels as my protector. I refused citing that I was not a soldier just yet and I could not truly protect him from danger until my training was complete and the elders had declared that I was ready to leave the village on my own. He replied that he would wait for me until that day, and he did. When I finally became a man in the eyes of the villagers and my family, I left to find Ma'el, and he was there waiting for me at the place we always used to meet during our adventures. We laugh about the whole situation now. It seems so natural to us that it is humorous."

"What a gift you two must have found in one another," Sonya said with admiration, "that you would so instinctively risk your life for him and that he would so naturally ask you to accompany him. It takes a special bond to sow a friendship that strong."

"He is more than a friend to me. He is like the brother I never had. Sometimes I feel as if he is the elder brother and sometimes I feel as if I am. However, I have never thought of him as my superior. I just like to refer to him that way because I know how it annoys him."

"So I gathered," Sonya laughed. "All my life I have sought a bond as strong as that, but I was never able to find it. That is why I ran away when I did. I knew that if I married a man I did not love, I would never receive the bond I longed for."

"And do you find that bond you have searched for here?" Paul asked, feeling himself grow closer to her.

"Yes," Sonya said, lost in Paul's hazel eyes. "I believe I do."

Paul's heart quickened as he gently placed his hands on Sonya's shoulders and pulled her close to his chest. He could feel her soft quick breaths on his cheek.

"Paul!" a firm voice cried.

He immediately released Sonya, who embarrassedly retreated back to the followers that thankfully were so wallowed up in their own conversations that they had not noticed. Paul turned to look for the origin of that firm voice and found Ma'el.

"I am sorry, Ma'el," Paul said. "I did not realize you had come."

"Clearly, you did not," Ma'el said humorously.

Ma'el passed him and treaded towards Julianus. Julianus bowed immediately and started rambling the apology he had rehearsed with his friends. But Ma'el stopped him before he could finish.

"I believe it is I who owes you an apology, Salvius," Ma'el said humbly. "I realize that your intent was to help me. You saw me in pain, and you reacted. The events that unfolded were purely accidental, and I cannot fault you for that. What I did was immature and excessive. I hope that you and the rest of my followers may find it in your hearts to excuse my erratic behavior and that you and I, Salvius, can put this embarrassment behind us."

"Of course, my lord," Julianus answered as humbly if not humbler. "I could never hold any ill will towards you."

"Thank you," Ma'el said exchanging the Taelon greeting with him. He then shook Julianus' hand to seal their pact. "I will now ask for you to wait for me back at my ship."

Julianus nodded triumphantly and walked out of the labyrinth. With the situation settled, Ma'el began directing his engineers on the specifics of rerouting the interdimensional core of the ship to the generator and of installing the weapons coils in the positions he had marked for them.

As Ma'el was answering questions and issuing orders, a thought drifted into Paul's mind that he knew was not his own.

_When this is over, we will speak with Ha'gel._

* * *

"Hey, Mi'en, check it out," Augur said. "They're showing the senatorial debate in Maryland."

Mi'en sat on the couch next to Augur and Street. She had spent a lot of time with them ever since Da'an had fallen ill. She had no idea why. Perhaps it was because she craved some kind of life right now. The humor shared between Augur and Street seemed to give that to her. Still, she had no idea why. As they watched the debate and laughed at the candidates spewing derogatory sentences back and forth, she searched her mind for possible reasons why. Many passed through, but one seemed to stand out. She theorized that Augur and Street were the least close to Da'an. They spent most of their time on the outside looking in. Because of this, the subject of Da'an did not come up too often. If she didn't think about Da'an, she didn't hurt as badly. But then, how could she not think about Da'an? She had cursed her selfish heart for wanting Da'an to return to her for so long now. She needed Da'an's wisdom right now. Nobody else could possibly understand why she still felt the scars of losing T'than. At the least, Da'an would make it stop hurting. She could stop running from the pain by associating herself with people she did not particularly care for.

When they got tired of watching the debate, Street changed the channel to a 24-hour news network. They were talking about the elections too. Mi'en did not understand why so many people were so worried about the elections. She knew that it mattered not which party won. The priests would find some way to corrupt them and turn them into puppets. With the Synod in the hands of the priests, there was no reason to worry about the electoral turnout of such an insignificant speck in the miasma that was the priest's agenda. Why else had the priests not worried about the elections so much? Hubble was a fool! If Da'an were here she would tell him that.

Augur and Street kept themselves busy by maintaining the security and communications systems of the ANA. They operated on several secure high definition radio frequencies that kept in close contact with the other ANA countries.

Mi'en had watched the ambassadors come in and out of the headquarters to speak with Hubble flooding him with urgent opinions on whom to support and whom to worry about. Mi'en began to curse her own species for introducing the portal system to the humans. Back in the days when travel overseas took hours and not minutes, no ambassadors or world leaders would have bothered. If they were so worried, they would have just made a phone call. That would have saved Mi'en the trouble of seeing them all pile into the office, one after another and some at the same time. If only Da'an could take over the ANA. Maybe then they would start worrying about things that really mattered.

Mi'en and the rest of the Taelons and Espelons could sense it, but Tay'jay had told them not to worry about it right now. They had conducted their own special meetings about it, kept secret from the ANA and the Resistance. The priests were not concerning themselves with the elections because they were planning something huge, something so huge that Zo'or's repeated attempts to overthrow them had been completely disregarded, something so important that they had no reason to think about the elections. If only they had time to figure out what it was, but no one wanted to listen to them.

Not that it was entirely the ANA's fault. The presence of the priests could be felt everywhere. They were in the Synod, they were in several governments on the planet, and they were even siding with some of the world's major religious organizations. Everywhere they turned, the priests were heralds of peace and prosperity. Their presence had rekindled all the hope and faith in the Taelons that Zo'or had taken away. All of the resistance's efforts to expose the corrupted ones for what they really were had been swept away by these new demigods. The poor ANA bastards! They had no clue what to do but worry about the fragments: these elections that didn't matter. How do you even start the fight against a foe like this?

Mi'en went over the whole thing again and again—how it all happened. She had not been present for a lot of it, but some time while she and Da'an had been away, Da'an had become a martyr. Shortly after Zo'or held the memorial service for Da'an declaring that Jaridians had captured and killed him, an anonymous source leaked information that Zo'or had been the real cause of the North American Companion's demise. He had apparently set Da'an up to be captured and killed by the Jaridians for political reasons no one would declare. The priests came deeming this unacceptable and rallied all the support they could against the corrupted dictator. Older Synod members started resigning, and they were replaced by vehement supporters of the priests. The reasons the older Synod members gave for resigning were endless. They felt powerless to stand against Zo'or, they felt ashamed of Zo'or, they wanted as far away from Zo'or as they could get, and, the most popular reason, they were resigning in protest against Zo'or for Da'an's death. All were lies, however. Most of them had been forced to resign either by Zo'or or by the priests.

Little by little, the priests replaced the resigning Synod members with new ones, and the ones they could not replace, they cleansed. T'than had been cleansed long before this. He had probably cleansed several fellow Synod members behind Zo'or's back. Ku'ni's protector had found out about their plan. Reyes found out that the priests were forcing the Synod members to resign and that they were cleansing the rest of the Taelons, turning them into mindless servants. Just as Mi'en had been before Da'an saved her.

The incident on the Andes Mountains had been the last straw. Originally it was dismissed as a freak volcanic eruption, but reports that the Mothership had been seen hovering over the exact spot of the eruption made their way to the Chilean government, and they sent that information to the UN. The UN and the ANA both believed that Zo'or had amassed a weapon of terrible power, and when Zo'or denied the accusation, an investigation initiated. The priests disclosed information about various projects that Zo'or had underwent ruining the lives of several innocent humans. The UN had grounds for charging Zo'or with crimes against humanity, and all they had needed was proof, for which T'than had negotiated with Da'an. Just before he could get the files, Zo'or and his protector went on a killing spree and nearly took Da'an with them.

The more Mi'en played it over, the more she began to understand why Zo'or had been pushed over the edge. Everyone was against him. People he thought he could trust were against him. Even T'than at the least had Malley. However, Zo'or had been alone, shot down in his prime, without a friend in the world. Mi'en could not believe how she pitied him. But she was alone too. She felt alone without Da'an. Da'an was the only person she really considered a friend because Da'an defended her. Da'an appreciated her. Da'an told her she was worth something. It had happened to her more than once. People she thought were her friends would turn against her when they found out what she was. One day, she just got tired of hiding it and left the Mothership to be on her own. Da'an never turned away from her, even when she had turned away from Da'an.

"Are you okay, Mi'en?" a soft voice asked.

Mi'en raised her head anxiously. But it had just been Street. "I'm all right."

"You're not thinking about T'than again are you?" Augur asked.

"No, why would I?"

"Well, you did watch him die in front of you, and he was your sibling," Street said nervously.

"I wish people would stop reminding me of both of those facts," Mi'en said, rising from the couch. "Excuse me."

"I'm sorry, Mi'en," Street said ruefully.

"Just let her go," Augur said.

"God, I hate this," Street complained. "Ever since that bastard Zo'or died, everyone has been such a buzzkill. Renee and Liam don't talk anymore, Ariel and Link barely come around anymore, TJ spends all his time training, Ta'lay hasn't left that damn crazy place once, Mi'en can't say anything with more than two syllables, and to top it all off, Da'an's now a loony. It's not fair. How can the death of the one person who probably deserved it hurt so many people?"

"First of all, it wasn't just one death, it was several, and secondly, everyone who's like this now was really close to the people who died. Da'an was close to Zo'or, Liam was close to Sandoval, and Mi'en was close to T'than. All three of them are hurting, so everyone close to them is hurting too. It's like a chain reaction of negative chi."

"Well, when are they all going to get better?"

"That's a little insensitive, don't you think?"

Street scoffed. "Insensitive? Sandoval killed every last Synod member and their protectors and then himself, Zo'or tried to kill Da'an just because he didn't have the power to do anything else, T'than was a bigot towards Mi'en just because she's a _para'shim_, whatever that is, but I'm the one that's insensitive because all I want is for my friends, who have been affected by this travesty, to be okay? Oh, that's really balanced Augur!"

"Wow. That was a whole mouthful what you said. You're really taking this hard, huh?"

Street hung her head low. "Yeah. It's just…I thought we were really making progress. I mean, I'm not any kind of believer in the Cinderella story, but we were doing and learning so much. There are Taelons and Espelons who are siding with us, and Da'an had her powers and everything, but with everything that's been happening, we haven't really been doing _anything_."

"Look, I've been with these guys for a long time, and I've seen a lot of strange stuff. I've been through a lot too, especially after the state of emergency. But I believe it's all going to be okay," Augur said. "I know these guys. They'll recover from this. I mean, sure we're in a bit of a slump right now, but everyone falls down. Just give it time. We'll get back in the fight as soon as we're ready."

"I sure hope you're right."

"Well of course I'm right!" Augur said. "I'm a genius remember?"

"You wish you were," Street shot back pushing him over.

"Excuse me!" a sharp voice cried.

Street turned her head, but she found no one. Augur, on the other hand, leapt up immediately and walked to his computer. A tiny feminine figure fizzled into existence in front of him. Street couldn't make it out, so she got up herself and followed Augur. As she came closer and the figure became more decipherable she found herself in shock. Augur, for some ungodly reason, had created a holographic artificial intelligence program of Da'an!

It was dressed in a black short skirt with and a black business suit with a silk periwinkle blouse underneath. Its red hair was up in a bun with two curled bangs hanging over each side of her head. In her hands was the image of a black leather portfolio.

"Mr. Urick sent me a message stating that he wants you to compose a news feed for the _New York Times_ by Monday," the hologram said.

"Oh…my God!" Street cried. "You've made a holo-Da'an!"

"Okay, I…um…I can explain this," Augur said innocently.

"You'd better start! How long have you had this?"

"Since um…since I went to Jaridia with Da'an, but it's not what you think."

"Not what I think! Augur, you only make holograms of women you have crushes on!" Street cried.

"Well…"

Street gasped. "No way!"

"It's just a little one," Augur said innocently.

"Augur!" Street yelled. "She's taken! She's an alien! She's…She's like…a thousand!"

"You know, if it helps a little bit, he has holographic interfaces of you, Ta'lay and Miss Palmer as well," the holo-Da'an said.

"What did you say!" Street cried.

"Yeah, that never helps," holo-Da'an said awkwardly.

"You pervert!" Street said pushing Augur really hard.

"It's just a phase until I find someone better—"

"What was that!" the holo-Da'an cried sharply.

"I didn't mean it that way, baby!" Augur said to the holo-Da'an apologetically. "You know you're the only girl for me."

Street groaned in anger and started to leave the room, but Augur stopped her.

"Look, I know this all looks bad, but it's just a fantasy. It's a stupid one, and I'm ashamed of it…sometimes I am."

Street pulled herself from Augur's grip and started to leave again, but Augur caught her.

"You know me Street. It's the exoticism of her being an alien, a cute one at that. But for the most part, it's the brain I'm attracted to, not the body. Besides, I have no plans on acting on it. It's just a little bit of fun," Augur assured.

"Oh God!" Street groaned trying to regain her composure. "Ugh. At the least, don't let Mi'en find out. She's gonna be pissed if she finds out."

"Our lips our sealed," Augur promised. "Right, holo-Da'an?" he called looking back for her reaction.

"Meh," holo-Da'an shrugged, and she disappeared into Augur's mainframe.

* * *

Ma'el had not spoken for several minutes. This made Rembrandt suspicious, but he did not relay those suspicions to him. He assumed that he was looking for the best way to answer his question.

"All right. I am ready," Ma'el finally said.

"Shoot," Rembrandt told it.

"Da'an was born into the hands of a fundamentalist Taelon named Bel'lie. He and Taelons like him believe in the teachings of the priests and the path they have laid before the Commonality. These Taelons are isolationists. Those not blessed by the Commonality are impure and corrupt. They have a conceptual idea of what fits into the categories of the blessed and the impure. Da'an fell into Bel'lie's definition of impure. For the good of the Commonality, he had to destroy her. So one day, he did."

"Is that why he was so opposed to going to Earth? He thought the humans were impure and would corrupt the Commonality?"

"Bel'lie could not care less what your species does to the Commonality. Taelons like him are convinced that no outside source can corrupt the Commonality as long as the priests are there to protect it. However, if a Taelon born into the Commonality becomes corrupt, it is the duty of the fundamentalist Taelon to do away with this impurity."

"So their philosophy is to hack off the arm to save the rest, then."

"More so to purify the malevolence before resorting to such atrocities."

"Then why not just purify Da'an?"

"He tried to. The priests would not let him. Because Da'an was so young, they feared purifying her would drive her mad. Most children can barely handle the whole of the Commonality as it is, so their connection is not as strong as an adult's. When a Taelon reaches approximately sixteen years of age, the priests will purify their bodies and give their minds entirely to the Commonality. This is the age when they become mature enough to handle it. Bel'lie however was not willing to wait that long. He believed he did not have that kind of time. He feared Da'an was out to murder him, so he killed her."

"How did she survive?"

"I cannot tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know that."

"You just told me that you know everything," Rembrandt said.

"I told you that I know everything that Da'an knows. Everything that Ma'el knows. Da'an and Ma'el do not know everything. We have theories about Da'an's revival, and nothing more."

Rembrandt scoffed. "So what did she do to him when she made it out of the water?"

"She and I confronted Bel'lie and nearly destroyed him. He was imprisoned on a distant colony shortly afterward, and Da'an was placed under the care of her grandfather Ka'li."

"And you?"

"I was placed with Ka'li as well, but when my caste was assigned to me, I was given to a mentor."

"And you became a scientist."

"Correct."

"What about Da'an?"

"She went to a school for diplomats, a school run by the Synod. At this school, Taelon diplomatic hopefuls were groomed and cultured to become the future Synod. Zo'or went to this school as well."

"I take it he didn't do well."

"Quite the contrary. Zo'or was one of the best in the school, as was Da'an. Like parent, like child. Zo'or, however, was hopelessly arrogant. He looked down upon anyone below his standards of intellect and integrity. Quo'on fit this definition."

"Did Da'an fit this definition too?"

"Absolutely not. Zo'or's spite against Da'an was purely out of hatred. Hatred for the neglect and selfishness Da'an had shown him since her capture."

"You mean when she was psychologically tortured. Tay'jay told me about that."

"Her mind was still fragile at this time. She was in no condition to care for Zo'or on her own, and Quo'on did nothing to help her. He feared her."

"Why?"

"Shortly before Da'an and Zo'or were captured, Da'an killed a Jaridian. She killed him with her telekinetic powers in front of Quo'on and Zo'or. She did it to save their lives."

"So Quo'on was scared of her for the same reason that Bel'lie was. Did the Synod know Da'an was a telekinetic?"

"They knew nothing."

"Well, at least the bastard was courteous enough to keep that secret."

"He kept it secret because the high priest told him to keep it secret."

"Speaking of secrets, I want to know more about this secret the priests kept about Da'an for so long."

"No. Not yet."

"Why not?"

"You and I have agreed to an exchange. I give you information in exchange for information about you. It is time that I received my share."

"You get a portion of your share," Rembrandt said firmly. "I still haven't received the full of mine yet."

"Precisely."

Rembrandt was growing frustrated with this thing that called itself Ma'el. There was so much more he wanted to know, and he was worried that he would forget all the questions he had to ask.

"Hmph. That would be Ta'lay," Ma'el suddenly said.

"What?" Rembrandt asked in confusion.

Rembrandt suddenly saw a shadow form on the wall in front of him. He turned to face the figure that had grown the black aura painted on the wall. Sure enough, it was Ta'lay.

"Rembrandt, I am sorry, but I must take you back now. Visiting hours are over," Ta'lay said softly.

"I'm not leaving," Rembrandt replied in a firm and determined voice.

"Go on. I will see you first thing in the morning. We still have much to speak about," Ma'el told him.

"I'm not leaving her, Ta'lay," Rembrandt said disregarding Ma'el's voice.

"I know you wish to stay, but I cannot keep you here. If they found out that I did, I would never be allowed back here and neither would you. Please. If you wish it, I will bring you here the moment visiting hours start tomorrow."

"I can't leave her," Rembrandt said.

"Think about Ariel," Ta'lay said. "She has been asking about both of you all day. She needs to go home right now."

"Yeah, you're right," Rembrandt said with a grimace. He turned to face Ma'el. "I'll see you tomorrow then. If anything happens to her—"

"Do you honestly take me to be that malevolent? I am hardly as selfish and cruel as Zo'or."

"I'm sure you aren't," Rembrandt said with a hint of cynicism.

He left with Ta'lay. He had noticed that the whole time she was in the room, she had been doing all she could to keep from looking at the thing that had overtaken Da'an. Who could blame her?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: For Love and Affection

There is a traitor among us. Is she all right. You wouldn't believe it if I told you. Where is she. Can I see her. She's in the hospital bed. Link's coming. I talked to Tay'jay today. I could hardly believe his enthusiasm in all this. Come with me, Da'an. Where are you taking him. The child comes with me. Da'an. Da'an no. Picture if you will a face. A boy. At least I think it is. He's whimpering and I do not even care. In fact, I want him gone. I do not understand. Zo'or. Is that who this is. If you try to stop me I will ruin you. Ta'lay, are you okay. I am fine. I am in a little bit of shock. Yeah this is a new look for you. That's not it. What is it. This Taelon belongs to the priests. No, not my grandchild. The child is no longer your concern. I wish you did not have to go with them, Da'an. It is my duty to follow the priests. Tay'jay and Ar'ron will never forgive you if you leave without saying goodbye. I will never forget you. I understand. You think you do, but you do not. Do not think that I despise Da'an for this. I don't think you do. Does anyone else. We're all worried about her, not angry with her. Anger. So many people I have turned away from. So many people. Friends. Family. People I loved, yet never realized. Zo'or. Liam. Tay'jay. Ma'el. Rembrandt. Ariel. He will be safe with us. Ka'fil. Please, let no harm befall my grandchild. It is not your grandchild's welfare of which you should be concerned. I do not understand. Ask your other grandchild. The one who can see things before they happen. Please. Do not let them take away his memories. Do not let him be a stranger to me. There is little I can do, but I will try. Just be strong. Be strong. How can I be. So many people I have turned away from. So many people I have wronged. What a fool I am to believe that I was free of that burden. What a fool I was to close myself from them all. My Zo'or. I believe I hurt you the most. She is hurting, but she will not tell me why. I wish that I could use this newfound power to break through to her. She and Rembrandt are at their wit's end. I believe she will leave him. She can't do this to us. She can't keep turning away from us. No, not yet.

* * *

Ma'el awoke with his back cradled in something soft and the rest of his body on something hard. When he regained his sight, he saw that Paul was leaning over him with a look of terror in his eyes.

"What happened?" Ma'el asked him wearily.

"I do not know," Paul said in a tone that did not come close to reflecting the fear in his eyes. "We were on our way to the portal and you collapsed. Your body began shaking violently. Ma'el, please tell me what is wrong with you. Something clearly is out of place. Is it your visions? I cannot help you if you do not tell me."

"Are you finished?" Ma'el asked as wearily as he had before.

Paul sighed in disappointment. "Yes, Ma'el."

"Good," Ma'el said. "Help me stand."

Paul and Ma'el found that easier said than done. The first few times Paul attempted to help his companion to his feet, Ma'el collapsed dizzily into his arms. The fifth time, Paul could not take it anymore and he dropped with Ma'el still in his arms.

"I will not tolerate this any longer, Ma'el!" Paul cried. "Damn you, I am your protector! I am your brother! I will not stand by and watch you suffer if there is something I can do about it!"

"That is precisely why you are taking me to Ha'gel," Ma'el said. "Does anyone else know about this?"

Paul shook his head. "You sent the followers to rest as a reward for their efforts. They left before us. You wanted to make sure they had all returned to their chambers. You collapsed shortly after. Do you have any other redundant questions to ask me?"

"Be wary of your tone, Paul. I do not care for it," Ma'el said strictly. "You of all people should know that there is nothing you can do to help me."

Paul released Ma'el from his grip out of spite. But when he heard the poor Taelon's body crash against the hard floor, he immediately saw his mistake and tried to correct it by helping him up. Ma'el pushed him aside and stood on his own.

"I do not want to fight with you, Ma'el," Paul said softly.

"Neither do I," Ma'el agreed regaining his equilibrium.

"Then, why can you not simply tell me what is the matter with you? There is no reason for us to keep secrets from one another. Not after all we have endured together."

Ma'el looked down. Paul could see that his eyes were very distant. "My visions are growing more powerful. They are so powerful and so violent that they physically harm me. That is why I must see Ha'gel. I must discover why this is happening to me and find a way to correct it. Otherwise…"

Paul dreaded the finishing of that sentence, and Ma'el knew he did. That was why Ma'el trailed off. Paul decided to fight his fears or else he would never understand what was happening to his friend. "Tell me, Ma'el," he demanded.

A wave of blue circulated throughout Ma'el's body. "Despite my current appearance, I am quite old. I could barely handle my visions before. If they have grown stronger to the point of inflicting physical harm upon me, I may not have the physical strength to endure them much longer."

"Do not hide your meaning behind your words, Ma'el. What are you trying to tell me?"

Ma'el winced. "My own powers are killing me."

Ma'el's words hit Paul like a rockslide. He had not the heart to look into the Taelon's eyes. He wanted someone to wake him up so that he would know this was all just some terrible dream. He felt Ma'el's hand on his shoulder, but he would not turn to acknowledge its owner.

"You should not fear for me, Paul," Ma'el said. "This is a fate that will befall us all eventually. No one is immune from it."

"If you are so unafraid of this death, then why do you work so hard to run from it?" Paul asked bitterly and he marched away from his companion to the portal.

Even though he knew no one else was there with him, Ma'el refused to show his hurt from Paul's words. He felt ashamed. He had known Paul for so long. His very life he owed to Paul. They had watched the world grow old together, yet Ma'el still feared revealing his emotions to Paul. It was not something exclusive to Paul, however. Ma'el never revealed his feelings to anyone, not even his closest relatives. It was not that he feared exposing his weaknesses. It was far more than that. It was Da'an. It was his sister. She had saved his life in a way that no one could ever understand. She had saved him in every way a person could be saved. No one else had and could help him as she. She was a hero in his eyes, and she was the only one worthy enough to see his pain. Not the Commonality, not his friends and family, not his followers, and not even his blood brother were worthy of such an honor. As he walked slowly to the portal, he wished that she were here with him.

* * *

Ma'el smirked at Paul's outrage when he told Paul that Julianus was coming with them. Paul and Julianus had a long and rocky history that started with an incident Ha'gel caused that forced them to work together. Paul had always been aware of Julianus' tendencies. Working with Julianus only confirmed his suspicions that Julianus was an arrogant extremist. When Ma'el tried to explain his reasoning, Paul was too furious to argue further and marched to prepare for the trip to Ha'gel's prison.

Ma'el did have his reasons for favoring Julianus. He had been aware of Julianus' tendencies since the day they had first encountered each other. Ma'el had sought him out and people like him for good reason. Paul did not realize that Ma'el was grooming Julianus for a very special task. Salvius Julianus: full proof of the puppet master Ma'el was. If only he could make Paul realize that.

As Ma'el waited, he saw Sonya attempting to sneak onboard the ship. Her curiosity was beginning to strike him as a nuisance. Not because of Sonya herself. More so because of Paul's constantly leaving her innocent curiosity unchecked. It was high time Ma'el put and end to this. Sonya was a good woman and did not deserve such treatment.

"Going somewhere, Sonya?" Ma'el asked subtly.

Sonya whirled to face her master and dropped to her knees in forgiveness. Ma'el stopped her before she could speak and told her to rise and face him.

"I am sorry for my sneaking, Ma'el," Sonya said timidly, "but I am very worried about you and Paul. I only want to help in any way that I can."

Ma'el smiled. "Have I ever told you who you remind me of?"

"No, Ma'el."

"You remind me of her."

It took Sonya a little while to understand his meaning, but before Ma'el could give in and tell her, she figured it out. "You mean your twin? Da'an?"

Ma'el nodded slowly.

Sonya's face burned red with a combination of embarrassment and flattery. "I never knew that. I do not know what to think," she said in a flustered tone.

"Think of it as a compliment," Ma'el simply said.

"Forgive me for asking—"

"There is not one question you have ever asked me that requires forgiveness Sonya," Ma'el interrupted. "You should not be so afraid of speaking with me casually, especially now."

"Believe it or not, Ma'el, your youthful appearance only makes it even more intimidating to speak with you. I do not quite understand why that is."

"I see," Ma'el said ponderously. "I do not quite know how to respond to that, but it should not be of any concern to you. Perhaps you should ask your question now."

"Oh yes," Sonya said trying to remember what it was she was going to ask. When she finally recalled it, she said, "I was only curious as to why you refer to your twin as a female."

"Because before the mass evolution, she was the closest thing the Taelons have to a female," Ma'el explained. "I adhere to path that evolution has set for us, not the path of the misguided purist that is the high priest."

"Interesting. I never knew that the Taelons were once so much like us scientifically. What was your sister like? Was she very curious?"

"She was extremely curious, but she was also very shy. She had trouble socializing as a youth. She often kept to herself and confided in me."

"Is she a scientist like you?"

"No," Ma'el chuckled. "She is a diplomat. She is a member of the Taelon Synod."

"A diplomat?" Sonya exclaimed, "but that requires a strong ability to socialize."

"She eventually opened herself to people when Ka'li became her guardian. He taught her not to fear people, but to respect them and to listen to them. He showed her how to learn from others and read them. She blossomed under his guidance. He was probably the best role model a child could have." Ma'el suddenly smiled and blushed.

"What is it?" Sonya asked, becoming comfortable enough to ask without hesitation.

"It is nothing," Ma'el said with a grin.

"Tell me," Sonya said in a teasing tone.

"You would not believe me if I told you," Ma'el chuckled. "There are few who do."

"I will believe you," Sonya promised. "You have never lied to me. Why would you lie to me now?"

"Very well." He took a long look at the ship they were standing in. "This ship that is now my home? This ship that I have had for centuries? This ship that is so magnificent to all you humans who look upon it?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"She built this," Ma'el said.

Sonya's mouth dropped. "Is that true?" she exclaimed.

"As true as the fact that your planet revolves around your sun," Ma'el said.

"But a diplomat? Building a ship? How? Why?" Sonya asked, bursting with marvel and inquisitiveness. "You must tell me."

"When she and I were children, Da'an used to use her telekinetic abilities to create objects for me. She decorated and redecorated our rooms hundreds of times. It was a hobby that she never really revealed to anyone but me and her older sibling Tay'jay. After Taelon children are assigned their castes, they immediately begin training. Da'an was sent to a special school for diplomats of the highest regard. Many of these diplomats become Synod members, so the school is very prestigious. Because of this, these diplomats often participate in hands-on projects with real Synod members very early on. They often have to travel to new locations around our galaxy and oversee or compose special projects. These projects cover many different areas of interest, but the objective is always to improve the quality of the lives of people abroad. Da'an was only ten when she was assigned her first project."

"Ten!" Sonya exclaimed. "That is so young!"

"Keeping in mind that a ten-year-old Taelon has the appearance of a teenage human. Our final growth spurt that matures our bodies into adults is at the age of sixteen."

"I suppose. I was a teenager when I joined you."

"Da'an's first project was an engineering project to assist under a Synod member that was working to introduce an allied species of ours to deep space travel. While she worked with him, I was apprenticing with a scientist and traveling with him for research projects. The ship I worked on was very small and very cramped. It could barely hold one person, much less two. But these were the ships that were assigned to scientists. We had to construct everything from our lab to our living quarters on the planet on which we researched because the ship was far too small to live in. When I told Da'an about this, she was outraged. She said that I deserved much better, and she vowed to create a vehicle for me that would be my home, my lab and my vehicle all in one. She promised me that by the time I became an independent scientist and was ready for long-term research projects, I would have a ship that I could be proud of. The structure you stand in now is the final result of that promise."

"She built this entire ship on her own!" Sonya exclaimed.

"It took her years, but yes, she did. From the bio-slurry that composes the exterior to the master control panel at its heart, she built this thing with her own two hands. No one assisted her. She told me she wanted it to be all from her."

"That is amazing!" Sonya cried. "And in such a short period of time too! It has taken us decades just to construct your labyrinth, and yet she would have built this for you in…"

"Five years," Ma'el summed for her.

"Five! It does sound too outrageous to be true, even with such advanced Taelon technology at her exposure. I can see why few believe you when you tell them. But does she not correspond your story with her own testimony?"

Ma'el shook his head. "This ship is the last great gift she ever gave to me. It was built primarily with her telekinetic abilities, and she worked on it whenever she had a moment's worth of time. She put her every effort into constructing this masterpiece all for me. It was meant to be my birthday present when I turned sixteen. It was the last moment of happiness she and I shared just before she saw the high priest and he…cleansed her. She has conducted several projects all involving things from engineering to medicine. One she is well known for is her leadership in the construction of the bridge of the Mothership. It is the most well fortified structure on the entire ship, and it never would have been so well protected if it were not for her. She fought for the best engineers, the best scientists, and the best designers for that Mothership, and she assisted whenever she could from concept, to design, to construction, and finally to finish. Only those who were with her when she oversaw that project come close to believing me when I tell them. With the commitment and genius she displayed many told me they would not be surprised if that were true. However, since she would never verify my words, not even they believed me."

"It must sadden you to know that she will never appreciate this ship as well as you."

"Many things that my sister has done since the priests took her sadden me," Ma'el said bitterly.

"Oh Ma'el," Sonya said offering a comforting hand.

Ma'el hesitantly took the hand and started to walk with her. "She is trapped in a mind prison now, and the worst part is not even that she is unaware of the prison. The worst part is that she is _proud_ of it. She is so proud and so loyal to the Commonality now that she would die for it. She would kill herself if the Commonality asked it of her. All of my brethren would. They are all trapped in an illusion, so much so that they would sacrifice all that makes them moral just to keep the illusion alive. They would sacrifice all that makes them…human. Even I, in all my years of effort to fight the power of the Commonality, could not resist its power. It stole from me just as it steals from her now, and I never realized it or understood it until I came here, until I met Paul. This planet…it changes people. Your species from its crowning achievements in civilization to its simplest task of living and loving has this amazing power to bring such revolutionary change. Humanity is an inspiration, Sonya."

"I only wish that my people could recognize such potential," Sonya said, "and work together to utilize it."

"That is why I am trying so hard to prepare both humanity and my sister for the Taelon arrival. I do not want the Taelons to ruin that inspiration. I do not want the Taelons to squander a species with such potential with the indignity that is their agenda."

"Ma'el, what is the agenda of the priests?" Sonya dared to ask.

Ma'el hung his head low in sorrow. "I wish I could tell you that."

"I will not hold judgment against you if that is what you are afraid of," Sonya said.

"You may judge me all you wish, Sonya," Ma'el said. "I would prefer it that way. My fear is that my telling you would bring hatred towards the rest of my species upon you. My fear is that you will despise my people, that you will despise my sister. The Taelons are not at fault, Sonya, and neither is the Commonality. It is the controllers of the Commonality who must pay. I fear that you will hate my people too much to help them, but they need help Sonya. The Taelons and the humans are more closely related than you think. My newfound body is proof of that. Do not let the many nightmares they will bring upon your people consume you with enough hatred to forget this. If you do, then all you will do is prove the purist ideals of the high priest correct."

"Is the agenda so vile and so horrible" Sonya asked, "that it can produce such deep prejudices?"

"Its simplicity makes it that way," Ma'el said. He stopped and asked her to look into his eyes. "Tell me, Sonya, what is your definition of a holy man?"

"Why…you of course," Sonya said in a confused voice.

"Incorrect. What is your definition of a holy man?"

"Um…someone such as you?"

"Incorrect. What is your definition of a holy man?"

"I…I do not know what answer you seek."

"There is no trick to this question, Sonya. What is your definition of a holy man?"

"Uh…A holy man is a man who opens himself to the divine," Sonya said, but she stopped suddenly waiting for Ma'el's approval of her answer. When she received neither approval nor disproval, she continued cautiously. "A holy man is righteous and brings his followers on a path to paradise. He…He guides his followers when they are in doubt, and he purifies those who have sinned. He is…tolerant, and…he is gracious. He is humble and unselfish. His mission is not his mission, but rather…the mission of the divine."

"I see," Ma'el said, "and I strike you as a man of such caliber?"

"Of course. I would not have followed you if you were not a holy man."

Ma'el nodded as if in contemplation. "What if I were to tell you that you were wrong?"

"I would ask in what manner."

"Good because you are wrong, Sonya," Ma'el said. "I am not a holy man even though the few followers that remember my legacy will remember me as a holy man. I will tell you what a holy man is and why I am not such a man."

"Tell me," Sonya said, gazing deep into his cerulean eyes.

"A holy man is a man who is given a piece of the divine. He then uses this piece of the divine for the betterment of his people. He is strong, and he is selfless, as you have said. He is good and virtuous. He embraces peace and understanding. He provides answers but he is willing to learn, and most importantly of all, he knows when to let his followers go. I am not a holy man however. It is true that I carry a piece of the divine. However, I am not strong and I am not selfless. My purpose for you and my other followers is my own. My plans for you never would have come into fruition had I not learned from Paul just how amazing you people are. The truth is I am a selfish man. My honor, my family, and my species come before all else, and you do not represent any of those things. The problem is that I am not strong enough to restore the honor that was robbed from my family from yet another false god."

"Why are you telling me this, Ma'el?" Sonya asked, trying to fight the growing fear that was sending small shivers down her spine.

"I am nearing the end of my days, Sonya," Ma'el said solemnly. "I fear that a terrible tidal wave threatens to consume me, and I have no power to stop it. I did not imagine that my end would come so soon, but I cannot deny the images I have been receiving. I want you to come with me to see Ha'gel. I believe now more than ever that you must be present if Ha'gel confirms my findings, for I am about to give you the ultimate test of your loyalty. It is a burden that you may not want, but a burden you must endure nonetheless."

"What is this test, Ma'el?" Sonya asked in fear. "What is it that you want me to do?"

"I want you to be strong," Ma'el replied slowly.

She was about to ask him what he meant by that when suddenly a strange and sickly-looking wave of energy robbed Ma'el of his façade. He let out a terrible, desperate gasp that would forever haunt Sonya's memories and collapsed into her arms. When she finally managed to overcome the shock, she found herself lying on her knees with his head atop her thighs like a pillow. His eyes were wide open, dark, and holy. She was holding his hand, and he was clinging to hers like a lifeboat. She was too afraid to leave him and go for help, and some unseen force kept telling her not to get help either. She thought it was a voice at first, but she realized that it was not. She was not hearing this thought. She was thinking it. She was thinking something that was not her own thought, and she realized that someone was communicating to her, but she was not entirely sure that it was Ma'el. She felt like the thoughts were coming from him, but she did not feel like he was generating them. Someone else was there. Someone else was communicating to her.

_Please help me. Someone hear me. My mind is not my own._

* * *

Rembrandt carried the sleeping Ariel to the ANA headquarters building at the wee hours of the morning. The fall chill had, at long last, come in. Strangely enough, however, the leaves had already been changing color and falling to their green and brown graves on the ground. Rembrandt thought a lot about Ariel's mother and the tension that had fallen between her and Da'an. Poor Ariel had been shifted like an out-of-place cereal box between parents. He knew how much this hurt her, and he was not quite sure that she would ever recover. He had never imagined himself with children. In fact, he had never wanted children for this very reason. He knew that his job and his duty to the military would always keep him away from his children. He feared his neglect would turn them into something horrible, something like Zo'or. But as he held little Ariel in his arms, shielding her from the cold breeze with his black wool coat, he began to wonder why he never had children before. In the short time that they had been together, he had grown to love Ariel. He had given her moral support when Da'an had finally gone over the edge. He was her comfort when Da'an was gone. He sometimes felt a strange gender role reversal had somehow occurred between him and Da'an, but he was actually thankful for it. It had shown him that he could handle taking care of a child and that he could grow to love this one.

Now, all he wanted was for her to be happy, and he knew that would never be until both of her parents were together and all right. Until then, he and Ariel would share the same burden, the same pain, and the same longing. That one person could do that to him and her in such a short period of time had been unimaginable to him. But he had faced the fact that he just didn't work without Da'an, and Ariel didn't work without her either.

He opened the door and walked past the groggy morning guards after showing them his pass. Ariel slowly began to awaken as her body adjusted to the change in temperature. By the time the elevator reached the basement, Ariel was wide-awake.

"Sir?"

"What is it, sprout?" Rembrandt asked.

"Is ma'am still mad at us?"

"No. She was never mad at you. She's just really sick."

"What's the matter with her? Is it her powers?"

"Yeah. They made her sick."

"Are you going to help her get better?"

"I'm trying to."

"When will she get better?"

"Soon, I hope."

"Okay. Well, can you tell her that I'll wait for her to get better?"

"I sure will," Rembrandt said. "You study hard today, okay? Don't let this get to you. Ma'am's gonna be just fine."

"Okay, sir. I'll see you in the afternoon."

Rembrandt set her down on the red carpet and watched her go inside the room where the Taelons and Espelons were waiting to teach her. He sighed heavily and made his way out. He had another long journey ahead of him.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late. I had to drop my kid off at school," Rembrandt told Ta'lay, who had been waiting for him at the front entrance.

"No problem."

"You been sleeping?"

"Ugh! No. Why in the world would I do that?"

Rembrandt laughed. "Yeah, I don't sleep either. Not anymore anyway."

Ta'lay returned the laugh, but she regained her composure quickly. "I think I should tell you that Tay'jay's worried about the agenda of the priests."

"What about it?"

"Well, from what T'than and Ku'ni told him and Da'an before they died, the priests are reviving the original agenda."

"Is that bad?"

"Let me put it this way: I still cannot tell whether Zo'or's agenda or the original agenda was the worst of the two."

Rembrandt sighed. "What's this mean for us?"

"It means that if Da'an has not recovered by the time the elections have passed, the Taelons and the Espelons are leaving. They do not believe there is any reason for them to stay if Da'an is not well. They think that this planet is what drove her mad, and they want to be as far away from here as possible. The mere idea that the priests may be reviving their original agenda was the last straw to them."

"Are you leaving with them?"

"I will have no choice. My advice is to ascertain what that thing in Da'an's body wants from us as quickly as possible. Do whatever you have to do."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Also, I do not know how long I can keep bringing you here."

"Oh, let me guess. Dr. Park has no idea you're doing this."

"She does, but she did not mean for it to continue longer than the day I brought you. She only wanted you to open Da'an up. I may have…lied to her and said your efforts were unsuccessful."

Rembrandt grinned at Ta'lay cynically.

"I know how this sounds, but I will not have these humans turn Da'an into a psychological experiment. If I had told her you were successful in striking a conversation with her, they would have hauled both you and Da'an into one of those dreadful interrogation rooms, Da'an would have reverted back to her catatonic state, and we would have been back to square one."

He stopped to wait for the elevator with Ta'lay. "Look, I'm not gonna question your methods. You're a Taelon doctor, so you probably know more about this than I do. So I'll make you a deal. You give this all you've got and I'll give her all I've got. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a deal to me."

"Good." He let her step inside first.

* * *

"Good luck," Ta'lay said once more before opening the door.

Rembrandt walked into the morbidly white room as quietly as he had done before. The anomaly was waiting for him cross-legged on the bed again. There was no straight jacket anywhere in the room. Ta'lay must have convinced them that it was a waste of time.

"Nice to see you again, Brigadier General Delancey."

"You can call me Rembrandt."

"I will call you Rembrandt when you address me as Ma'el."

"Deal, Ma'el."

"Thank you."

The same chill he felt outside seemed to have followed him inside this very room, but he disregarded it this time and sat back in the chair.

"I believe it is my turn to learn about you."

"It is."

"Let us start with your name, Rembrandt. I want to know your real name."

"In the form of a question please," Rembrandt taunted.

"Sharp tongues cut the mouth, Brigadier General. What is your real name?" Ma'el said coldly.

Rembrandt rolled his eyes. Apparently, Ma'el was never going to address him by his name. It was a menial thing to care about in the midst of all of this, but Rembrandt did not like the connotation Ma'el had associated with his military title. But how could he expect Ma'el to call him Rembrandt anyway? It wasn't even his real name. "Alexandre Delancey." He had abandoned the Brooklyn accent he had been using for months now.

"And how did you come up with your interesting cover story?"

"For the most part it's true."

"I shall be the judge of that. Tell me the real story. From the beginning."

"All right. My full name is Alexandre Toulouse Delancey. My father was not a playwright. He was a poet. My mother actually was an artist, but she was more famous for her career as a concert pianist. That's how they met. He went to one of her concerts in Paris while he was studying abroad on Fulbright, and she fell in love with him because of his writings. They moved to New York City when I was two years old. My uncle was living in New York. He was a born-bred first generation American in the Delancey family. He was a Marine. My parents wanted me to become an artist just like them, but I became consumed with my uncle's talk about the military. When I was eleven, my father and I had a fight. Gauntlets were cast, words were said, and then my uncle got in on it. He was probably the biggest patriot I've ever known, and he thought it was great that I wanted to be in the military. That was the same night that I ran away to live with him. My parents didn't even bother with so much as a custody battle. They signed the adoption papers and I was legally my uncle's. To this day I'm not sure that was the best thing they could have done for me. They really weren't much of the parental type. I think the only real reason they moved back to the States was to further their careers. All they really cared about was their arts. My uncle wasn't like that. He wanted me to be strong, and he wanted me to do whatever I wanted. He saw the military as the best avenue to give me that. After all, it had given him everything he wanted. He put me in the military academy when everything was set with the adoption. I went there for the rest of my years at school and then I went to West Point. I studied sociology there and received my officer's training there. I joined the Marines after that. My tour of duty was in the Middle East. Then, I took a leave of absence to get my master's degree in Human Development. I'd gotten accepted to Cornell, and I was not about to pass that up."

"Then, how did you obtain your injury in Iraq?"

"I rejoined the Marines and the Special Ops team. When the Iraq War started, my whole life was action. Eventually, it catches up with you. I got my injury during one of our operations. A car bomb went off out of nowhere, and suddenly I was in the middle of a dogfight with a bunch of angry insurgents. I managed to get everyone out. No lives were lost—just my legs."

"Then, you must have left of your own accord out of disillusionment."

"That had something to do with it, but that didn't make the brunt of my decision. I actually continued working—but this time for military intelligence—long after that, but after a while, I just couldn't handle the corruption and the redundancy of the hundreds of different intelligence agencies all competing with each other. Nobody wanted to work together, and all the controversy with the Bush administration over his Iraq policy and who was responsible for what—I was fed up. I sent my letter of resignation and they gave me an honorable discharge and wished me the best of luck. I ended up in a shitty apartment looking for work and living off disability checks."

"When did you receive the request to participate in the Taelon experiment?"

"I did manage to find work for the police department. I was one of their psychoanalysts. A profiler if you will. I'm not certified, but I used evidence and records to trace criminal behavior. How do you think I saw through Da'an's disguise when I first met her? I wasn't just drawn to her energy. I could tell that she wasn't a profiler. She was too vague. Profilers usually give very detailed descriptions of their suspect profiles. But anyway, that's what I was doing when a naval officer called me and told me they got my name off a list of disabled veterans. They wanted me to participate in their experiment. I never knew exactly what it was about, but when they told me it could possibly give me back my legs I thought I should at least check it out."

"They were testing the effects of Taelon technology on perfectly healthy humans as well as disabled humans."

"That's what they told me too. They never told us what the point of it was, but I'm guessing it was to create some kind of super soldier. Whatever happened, that experiment gave me back my legs. Regardless of what happened to those other guys, I've been nothing but grateful for the Taelons for what they did to help me."

"And then?"

"Well that's where it gets interesting. When I came back to work, a man came to my office and spoke to me about working for the CIA. Apparently, the military had contacted them about the experiment and they wanted to put my talents to better use."

"What convinced you to join them? You said you were through with American intelligence agencies."

"At first I didn't. I told him to get lost. But I guess the old saying 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks' is true. As much as I hated the discombobulation of the intelligence agencies, the police force was no picnic either. It was dull. It was boring. I could walk, I could run—I could do everything those detectives could do and better, but they wouldn't put me in action. They said my talents were better served behind the scenes. I guess getting back the use of my legs gave me a rush. I felt a wholeness I'd never felt before, and I wanted action that the NYPD couldn't give me. The CIA was offering me everything I wanted. So I was willing to turn a blind eye to all the defaults. I called the recruiter, and then I never looked back."

"What do you do for the CIA?"

"Well let me put it this way. The CIA specializes in two different kinds of operations: 'information analysis' and 'clandestine and counterintelligence.' Which one do you think I specialize in?"

Ma'el chuckled. "Then, your assignment here is the Human Liberation Movement."

Rembrandt smirked. "It didn't start out that way. The CIA keeps wraps on its old agents, including one Agent Reyes. When he was murdered, I was ordered to investigate the possibility that his death was the resistance's doing."

"Stop for a moment. I want to know exactly how old you are."

"Okay," Rembrandt said relaxing his back against the chair and folding his arms. "I am forty-seven years old."

"You look quite young for your age."

"That's the Taelon in me."

"So I see. Then, Rembrandt Emerson Dauterive and the story behind him is all a lie."

"I wouldn't call it a lie. It's more like a gross degeneralization of the truth."

"Gross indeed," Ma'el said rolling his white eyes.

"I take it that Da'an knows all of this."

"She is not the one you are worried about. You are worried that Hubble Urick knows."

"Haven't we been through this already?"

"We have. Let us return to your investigation of the Human Liberation Movement. Now that Agent Reyes' death has been long since solved, what is your mission now?"

"You're enjoying this aren't you? You're enjoying turning the profiler into the profile. You're enjoying turning me into your psychological guinea pig."

"What I am _enjoying_ is your vain effort to avoid answering my questions," Ma'el said mimicking and thereby mocking Rembrandt's smirk. "Is that on purpose, Brigadier General?"

Rembrandt rolled his eyes and cracked his jaw. "Fine. After I sent the information that the resistance had no involvement in Reyes' death, they told me to stay where I was. I'd infiltrated the resistance and the ANA, and they needed me to investigate another possible terrorist target—a possible traitor if you will: Hubble Urick."

"I see," Ma'el said showing his amusement. "Are you aware that Da'an is not fully trusting of Hubble Urick either?"

"Of course I am, but I can't tell Da'an about my identity even if she already knows. I can't risk it getting back to Hubble or anyone else. If Da'an does know, I have to trust that she'll keep her mouth shut."

"Rest assured. She has. She has put most of it together. However, she did not know you were an agent of the CIA. I am more curious about your suspicions of Hubble Urick. From whence do they come?"

"Hubble Urick is openly against the Taelons and he has ties within the Resistance. The CIA and the FBI both think he has the potential to turn into Jonathan Doors."

"Creating terrorist incidents like blowing up a broadcasting station, commandeering a game broadcast, and instigating a computer viral outbreak in Taelon systems? You suspect Hubble Urick will do things like this?"

"That and further. You obviously haven't read the psych evaluation of that guy."

"Let me guess: narcissistic, manipulative, an extremist in desperate times, possible mood disorder. Aggressive political tactics suggest an unusually ruthless personality. Tendencies are hidden within his charm, poise, and self-declared aspirations. However, his aspirations are fastidious to the point of obsessive compulsion. He expects too much of himself and therefore expects too much of others. He is a perfectionist. If unchecked in an extremely stressful situation, he may even display homicidal tendencies."

Rembrandt was impressed, but he was not about to show that to Ma'el. "Okay, so maybe you _have_ read the psych evaluation."

"I do not need to read such drivel. I have dealt with plenty of your people with those same tendencies."

"Such as?"

"One of these days you should ask about the story of a man named Salvius Julianus. He was very much like Hubble Urick is now. But if you are looking for a more current example you need look no further than a graveyard."

Rembrandt searched his mind trying to understand whom Ma'el was referring to. When the answer finally came to him, he bit his tongue for not knowing it sooner. "Sandoval."

"Correct. Ronald Sandoval and Zo'or. Do you now understand why Da'an does not trust him? He reminds her too much of Zo'or especially now. The power that I granted her gives her the ability to look deep within a man's soul. She can see it. The potential is there. All he needs is a catalyst to push him over the edge."

"The congressional elections."

"What will poor Hubble do if he fails to rally the congressional support he so desperately needs to defeat the alien menace? How far are you willing to go when you are desperate? We have all seen the ramifications of that kind of logic—or lack thereof—in the actions of one Lili Marquette and her Jaridian husband Vorjak. By the way, you qualify as an alien menace as well, what with that impure Taelon energy coursing through your veins."

"I am aware of that. The CIA's been monitoring the elections just as closely for the very same reasons. They need me to tie him to any potential terrorist plots. If I can do that, then they can arrest him."

"Just one more question remains then: what will happen to Da'an and her poor friends when the CIA ransacks the Resistance hideout because of you?"

That was one question Rembrant refused to answer. When Ma'el realized this, he shrugged.

"It is all right. You do not need to answer that. It is of no importance."

"No…Not yet anyway," Rembrandt said uneasily.

* * *

Ta'lay's forehead collapsed into her hands. She was so occupied from this whole ordeal that she had not had sufficient rest for days. It was finally catching up with her. She blamed herself for this. There was no reason for her to be in this asylum from morning till night. Da'an was being taken care of sufficiently by Dr. Park and the humans, and psychiatry was beyond Ta'lay's area of expertise. However, she could not help being here. She felt it was out of some kind of duty to Da'an. She had heard about the loyalty Ma'el had inspired from the humans during his time on Earth. Could it be that Da'an was capable of inspiring that same kind of loyalty from the Taelons? Perhaps this was why the priests valued her so much, why the Synod had never cast her out, and why the humans were so outraged over her "death." But then, that would not explain the stagnancy here and now. It seemed like everything just stopped when Da'an was incapacitated. It angered Ta'lay. Da'an would have wanted the Espelons to carry on, especially now.

"Hey!"

Ta'lay's back shivered and her face erupted in a flush of blue energy. She whirled around to see just who had started her heart so. Then, she groaned. It was Tay'jay. "You miserable scoundrel."

"Aw, come on. You're glad I'm here. You know you are," Tay'jay said. "Remember when I said my instincts about you were that you were more female than male? I believe you owe me something."

"I never agreed to anything," Ta'lay said rolling her eyes.

"That means nothing, and I'm not leaving until you hand it over."

"How in the world can you be so cheerful when your little sister is locked away in an insane asylum?"

"Oh please," Tay'jay said carelessly. "My sister is a lot stronger than any crazy person in here, and she is gonna get over this."

"You are so certain of that."

"I have never had a doubt about her in my mind. If she can overcome a drug addiction, Nye's ritual, and all the resistance in the Haru Galaxy just to find me, I know she can overcome this."

"Keeping in mind that it took her over a thousand years to do the latter."

"So there was a little bit of a time gap issue. So what?" Tay'jay shrugged. "My point is that she's going to be okay, and I wish everyone would stop acting like it's the end of the world just because she's in here. With everything she's been through, it's understandable. She just needs a little time to get her head together."

"She doesn't seem to be trying very hard to do that."

Tay'jay nodded comprehensively. Then, he gently pressed Ta'lay against the wall. "Look. I don't think Ma'el waited all this time to pass his powers to her if he didn't believe that she could handle it. You don't know her like Ma'el and I know her. She's got a lot of power inside her. This is nothing more than a setback. My sister is going to change the world one day, and I'm gonna be there when that happens. And when that day comes, I wanna be able to tell her that I never doubted her for a second because I didn't. Don't you wanna be able to tell her that too?"

"I am a pragmatist, Tay'jay. I cannot have that much faith in anyone."

Tay'jay shook his head in pity. "Then you're in trouble because you'll never be able to have a meaningful connection with anyone if you can't have a little bit of faith in them."

"What if I'm not looking for that?"

"Then, what the hell are you doing in this place at all hours of the day and night?"

Ta'lay sighed, and Tay'jay followed closely with a chuckle.

"Look, Ta'lay, forget about other people. Do you have faith in yourself?"

"Of course I do."

"And what makes you think that you can hold yourself in higher regard than anyone here?"

"I know myself, and I know what I am capable of."

"Could you recover from this if it happened to you?"

"I'm…not certain I could."

"Then, it sounds like you don't have as much faith in yourself as you think you do. And if you're wrong about that, then maybe, just maybe you're wrong about this."

Ta'lay pushed herself away from Tay'jay and out of his hold on her. "That's not comforting."

"It's not supposed to be. If it were, then everyone could do it."

"Recover from insanity?"

"No," Tay'jay laughed. "Connect with someone. Have faith in someone."

Ta'lay let a small grin appear on her face. "Suppose I told you that I am here because of…what she did to me. Does it sound strange that what she did to me has brought me some kind of blind loyalty towards her?"

"What do you mean?"

"When she touched me that day…I saw something, something that I cannot explain. I saw this brilliant white light, and then I saw a person within the light. And then…I let it take me. I let this white aura take me. When I recovered, I looked like this. I should not feel anything about this. What does it really matter if I am a Taelon or an Espelon? But now that I am no longer connected to the Commonality and my thoughts belong solely to me, I feel better about myself. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I feel like something amazing has happened to me, and I have no idea why. Perhaps I am simply still overwhelmed by it all, but I feel like she has given me something extraordinary. Because of that, I feel obligated to give her something in return. But how can I do that when she is like this?"

"You wanna give her something extraordinary? Give her your faith."

"You make it sound as if it is some sort of religion."

"I know it's not, but after all she's done and for all she's doing, doesn't she deserve a little bit of hope?"

"I suppose," Ta'lay whispered more to herself than to Tay'jay. "I will be there for her until this is over. But right now, that is all I have to give."

"It's enough," Tay'jay assured her.

Ta'lay smiled awkwardly. "You have quite a bit of wisdom in you."

"Yeah, well I'm older than you," Tay'jay shrugged.

Ta'lay rolled her eyes.

"So does that earn me what I came here for?"

"It earns you my company for a while, and nothing more."

"Company as in…"

"Not like that," Ta'lay said firmly.

"I was kidding," Tay'jay said innocently. "It'll do. Accompany me to the sanatorium cafeteria, where we will drink bland hospital refreshments and delight in our repartee of the even blander hospital food."

Ta'lay could not help but laugh. "Very well."

* * *

"I believe that I have received my fill of you for today," Ma'el said lying back on the bed to relax his nerves. "You may now continue with your part of the bargain."

"Are you having fun, Ma'el?" Rembrandt asked mockingly.

"I always enjoy the exchange of information. I like to learn. Do you not?"

"You've got a pretty mean sense of humor."

"So I have been told, but I am not wholly without heart."

"Of course you're not," Rembrandt said cynically. "I don't think humans would've been so drawn to you if you weren't."

"You may ask what you wish of me now," Ma'el said cheerfully, hiding his offense.

"Okay, I guess I'll start where we left off," Rembrandt said rising to stretch his own joints and nerves after sitting in that chair for so long. "What is it about Da'an that the priests want so badly?"

"To know the value of my sister would be to know the history of the Taelon race."

"Is that your way of telling me that you want to give me a Taelon history lesson?"

"That is your decision, not mine."

"I guess I'm open to a history lesson."

"You said you wanted to know more about my sister, did you not?"

"Yes. I did. So then…how did it all start?"

"I do not understand the question."

"The Taelons. The Jaridians. How did it all happen? How did you guys come to hate each other, and what's so important about the Kimera, the Commonality, and the priests?"

"Where would you like me to start?"

"Start at the beginning."

Ma'el chuckled. "My influence is infecting your wit. Very well. In the beginning, the Taelons and Jaridians were one species. We were one species in an evolutionary sense. When our two species began to surface, the unclassified banished us. It is always humorous to me how our differences do not become a problem until we are stuck together for a few years."

"I think that's called 'cabin fever.'"

"Or at least a mild version of it. Eventually our two species separated for good. The Jaridians found a planet suitable for them and we found a planet suitable for us. Simple."

"Does it strike you as funny that the unclassifieds persecuted the Taelons and banished them just as the Taelons persecute and banish the Espelons?"

"Not a day passed by that I did not laugh at that realization," Ma'el said with a smirk. "Our change in evolution is thought to stem from our ability to reshape our flesh."

"Like when you create those facades?"

"Precisely. Soon we discovered that excessive use of this ability caused our forms to regress. I believe the current generation's phrase for this transformation is called 'The Atavus Syndrome.'"

"The beast."

"Yes. A group of Kimeran scientists came one day and pitied our plight. We have those Kimeran fools to blame for the Commonality."

"You don't care for the Kimera do you?"

"The Kimera in my eyes are no different than the Taelons are to the humans. They are lying, cheating scum who profess to be more intelligent and more evolved than they actually are. They put my species through heinous unspeakable experiments before they gave us the Commonality. Their actions outweigh any favorable outcome for the Taelon race, and there is nothing we did to them that they did not deserve. If there was anything at which the Kimera were better than the Taelons, it was at hiding a charade wrapped in a lie encased in a fabrication."

"I never imagined Ma'el being so angry at the Kimera. I figured he'd respect the Kimera for helping the Taelons. After all, it's not like they intended for the Commonality to last as long as it did."

"It is an unfortunate prejudice that I cannot seem to overcome. If the Kimera had simply treated us as equals, the revolution against them never would have happened. However noble your intentions are, you cannot expect to help a people if you do not respect them."

"That's true. But let's not get too much into that. When people start debating about morals, it only ends in pain and hatred."

Ma'el grinned. "Because we find out we are all immoral. Good."

"Thank you," Rembrandt said. "So you told me that the Kimera gave the Taelons the Commonality, and if the priests protect the Commonality, then the Kimera must have created the priests. Right?"

"They created seven of the eight priests. The high priest is an anomaly."

"Why an anomaly?"

"The high priest is from an ancient family of powerful psychic Taelons. Members of this family were selected as the first seven priests. Several generations later the Taelon that would become the high priest was born. He was an anomaly even to his own family, so much so that he frightened the even the Kimera. He was eventually cast out of his own family tribe when he accidentally killed his own mother."

Rembrandt's eyes widened, but he failed to orally express his shock. He simply asked, "Da'an told me that it was always the intention of the Kimera to drain the Commonality or something like that."

"Their insipid theory was that the Commonality would eventually fade into nothing as the generations of Taelons continued. The Kimera have the ability to absorb the energy auras of all living creatures. Where do you think their power to mimic their hosts comes from?"

"But the Taelons can mimic people too."

"Taelons can only mimic the façade. They cannot re-shape themselves into the form of another individual like the Kimera can. When a Taelon touches you, he takes a DNA sample from your skin and replicates it building a 'skin-suit' if you will over his own body. The Kimera literally absorb the DNA unto themselves, and with the DNA, a portion of the host's aura with them. They are not merely taking a skin sample and building a suit for themselves based on that. They are breaking down and rebuilding their entire bodies to become the individual they absorb, complete with the individual's memories, personality, and genetic information to help them become the individual. That is why Liam Kincaid carries the DNA of Ronald Sandoval even though Sandoval was nothing but a surrogate body. There are a few select species out there with abilities similar to this. The most popular species would be the Shape-Shifters, which are simply balls of energy that can genetically map the body of anything they touch and rebuild their entire bodies to replicate the map. The only difference is that the Shape-Shifters only can absorb and replicate the physical. The Kimera can absorb and manipulate everything about you. Your memories, your personality, any supernatural abilities you may possess—everything."

"But that doesn't explain those weird cocoons the Kimera put people in."

"That comes from a vial of bacteria they keep with them. They release the bacteria upon the host instantaneously as they replicate his body. The bacteria encase the host and put him into a deep sleep. It is meant to keep the host at bay while the Kimera prance around in his flesh. The Kimera believed the Taelons had an absorption ability similar to theirs, and why would they not? The Taelons can reshape their own flesh just like the Kimera, they possess shaquarava just like the Kimera, and they are energy beings just like the Kimera. It was not until the high priest was born that they realized all this was simply a coincidence. No Taelon has the energy absorption abilities of the Kimera. The closest we come to it is the shaquarava, and that becomes dormant when a Taelon gives himself to the Commonality. Returning to the subject of the high priest, eventually he grew older. His isolation made him despise his own peoples. He thought he was above them. He thought he was purer than them. But the priests took pity on him, and they took him in. From there, all the high priest had to do was wait."

"For what?"

"For them to die naturally. That was when he would absorb their energy auras just before they died and inherit their psychic abilities. He outlived all of them eventually and replaced them with priests who followed him. One day, he declared himself the purest of all the Taelons. He was the light when the light of the Commonality faded away. He was the High Priest of the White Light."

"So what in the hell were the Kimera doing all this time if they knew that the high priest was walking around in the ranks of the priests they had created?"

"Experimenting on the Taelons and traveling to and from their own home world. The Kimera were never permanently on Taelon. They came only about every fifty years and then stayed for twenty. They were like humans scientists who tag and release wild animals only to check on them every few years. The Kimera were nothing more than a temporary nuisance to us. As long as they did not stay, the Taelon tribes had no problem with them."

"So I'm guessing one day they decided to stay."

"They learned of this young and upstanding Taelon who had declared himself the high priest of the Taelon species, preaching hell-fire about the corruption running rampant in the Kimera and uniting tribes all over the Taelon planet. Naturally they grew concerned."

"Why didn't they just bail like normal people do when the situation becomes too much?"

"You are a former Iraq soldier and you need me to answer that question for you?"

"Oh, so the Kimera were _those_ kind of people," Rembrandt said sarcastically.

"Yes. For some reason the Kimera felt some kind of burden of moral integrity towards the Taelons. They had gotten us into this mess, and it was their civic duty to clean it up. They decided fight fire with fire by using the high priest's own tactics against him. They began absorbing the very fabric of the Commonality to weaken the powers of the priests. That was when the devolutions started happening. It was only supposed to be a temporary side effect, or so they said, but the Taelon tribes panicked. Their leaders went to the only group that could explain to them the complexity of the Kimera's motives. The high priest told them that the Kimera were afraid of their growing power and trying to destroy the Commonality."

"The leaders thought they were trying to pull the plug, so they fought back."

"The war lasted for one hundred years. Sometime during the war, the Taelon tribes officially united under one banner, and the first ever Taelon Synod was created. Eventually, the unity of the Taelons helped them defeat the Kimera. The Kimera fled, but we would spend centuries hunting them down and destroying them."

"You Taelons sure do know how to hold a grudge. Humanity, the Kimera, the Espelons, the Jaridians—is there anybody that doesn't cross you guys?"

"Not particularly. We are rather purist, not so?" Ma'el chuckled.

Rembrandt laughed too. He could not believe it but he was actually beginning to like Ma'el. He was growing used to this ghostly white form. He was even finding it easier to look into those glassy white eyes. "So what happened after the Kimera were defeated?"

"I believe we have come to the answer you have been waiting for, the answer as to why my sister is so special to the high priests."

"Indulge me then."

"It is my preference that you indulge yourself. What did you learn from the history of the Taelon race?"

Rembrandt sat down finally. "Let's see: The Taelons are a very vengeful xenophobic people even though they profess to be benevolent and driven purely by logic and nothing else. The high priest is the purist who taught them to be that way. The Kimera are a bunch of overconfident and overanalytical intellectuals who got themselves caught in a mess that was too big for them to handle."

"And?"

"And the high priest is some kind of anomaly in the Taelon race that has this ability to absorb auras just like the Kimera."

"You are moving closer to your answer. Remember that I told you that the Kimera are able to manipulate whatever they absorb to do with it what they wish. Like the Kimera, the high priest is a purifier. The power to purify bestowed upon an impure heart. Irony at its foulest."

"So, like the Kimera, whatever he absorbs becomes a part of him?"

"If that is the intention of the individual, then yes. However, most Kimera do not like the idea of forever keeping the thoughts of a stranger that close to their own minds. Therefore, they release portions of what they absorb in forms of energy that have no classification. This is not mental energy to fuel the mind, energy of life force or energy of the soul, or a person's 'aura' as you would call it. Rather this energy has no classification, no form. It is pure energy in its most natural form. The energy has been cleansed."

"So that's how the high priest is able to cleanse the Taelon minds. He's literally taking their mental energy and erasing everything that makes it unique. He's erasing their minds. Their memories. Everything."

"Not everything. True, the high priest calls it a cleansing, but it is not a cleansing. It is more of a filtering. These cleansed Taelons are still left with thoughts and memories. They are simply cleansed of the thoughts and memories that would turn them against the priests and the Commonality. He only cleanses pieces of the mind, the 'impure' or the 'tainted' pieces as he would put it."

That was when it hit Rembrandt. "Wait a minute. Wait. You're telling me all of this because…because Da'an's got these same abilities too."

"I would have been unable to pass my gifts on to Da'an if she were not."

"Of course," Rembrandt said to himself. "That's why she's so important to the high priest. She's just like him. She has this absorption and purifying ability too."

"There was never another high priest and there was never another Taelon born like him…until she came along."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Your Every Emotion

Sit with me, Da'an, and watch the stars with me. She shouldn't have to put herself through this. Are they talking about me? Their faces, and their names—I just can't put them together. I see it all the time, Rembrandt. Rembrandt? Tay'jay? Ariel? Liam? Zo'or… These names are all familiar to me. When I think about these names, memories come. However, the faces…all their beautiful faces…I cannot tell whose face belongs with whose name. Oh Zo'or…I failed you. I failed you miserably. Tay'jay… Da'an. I just wish you could hear me and understand me enough to show me. Just let me bear a small piece of the burden. That's all I want. That's all I wanted before you… Da'an, why can't you just show me these terrible things you keep seeing? You do not understand. I want to understand! Ariel wants to understand! Our friends and your family all want to understand you and help you! Why in the hell can't you get that through your head? Why is it that with all of that mental power you claim to have, you can't see what's right in front of you? I can't stand it anymore! Your wretched mind! All the noise! Just being around you and all the noise makes me sick! My own mind is soiled just being around you two! I have to get out! I didn't mean those things I said to you. All I wanted to do was help you. Zo'or, please don't do this! You must not do this! Zo'or, please take my hand. Let me help you. Don't do this to yourself. Please, I am so sorry. Da'an, wait! Don't leave. Look we can work this out. I am leaving! I cannot stay here a minute longer! Da'an, don't walk out of that door. Da'an! Just look at me! I am so sorry…for all of this, Da'an. Every thought you have equals a hundred days of torture! I cannot stand your rantings any longer! Remember what I told you Da'an. Sit with me. Watch the stars with me.

* * *

Ma'el awoke and felt something soft and smooth caressing his cheeks. He weakly took one of the smooth objects and held it to his chest. As he responded to the warm and silky object by squeezing it, he felt the thoughts of a gentle spirit. He knew he was in the arms of someone who loved him.

"Ma'el, can you hear me?" her soothing voice whispered.

Somewhere deep inside his mind the name of this woman was lodged, but he was too disoriented to find it. That was when Ma'el felt a sharp pain in his forehead and a warm trickle of energy escaped from his face. The voice began more concerned and repeatedly tried to assure him that she was going to take care of him.

Ma'el fought the pain with what little strength he had and raised himself from the lap of the woman who was holding him. He felt her arms take him and help him sit up and face her.

"Ma'el, please speak to me," the woman said desperately. "Tell me that you are all right now."

Ma'el gasped weakly as the woman's name finally came to him, "Sonya."

"I do not understand. What has happened to you?"

Ma'el shook his head only to find out that only made him more disoriented. "Tell me what I looked like, Sonya."

"You collapsed," Sonya said. "Then, your body jerked in many directions. I wanted to go to Paul or someone for help, but something in my mind told me not to."

"Was it me?" Ma'el asked. "I cannot remember what I did."

"No. These thoughts. They sounded as if they were coming to you, but their source felt different. It is as if someone is trapped inside you and trying to communicate with me."

Ma'el groaned. "That is precisely why we must see Ha'gel. We can ill afford to wait any longer. Take me to Paul…immediately."

"Are you certain that you are fit for such a journey?" Sonya asked.

"I am running out of time, Sonya. Please, just trust me."

"Wait," Sonya said before Ma'el could attempt to rise. She removed the silk belt from her robe and wrapped it around Ma'el's forehead. "You are cut."

"That is not necessary," Ma'el objected, removing the cloth. Slowly the gash sealed itself. "You may help me stand."

Sonya lifted Ma'el to his feet and helped him walk towards the rear of the ship where Paul and Julianus were probably waiting for Ma'el to join him.

When they found Paul, he had assembled all the materials necessary for the trip, including a bag of portables from the cache Ma'el had stored in his cargo hold, some weapons, and portable virtual glass shields, into a large black box that Paul had rigged with straps to carry on his shoulders. When he saw how weakly Ma'el walked in Sonya's arms, he dropped everything and ran to help him.

"What happened to him?" he asked sternly to Sonya.

"He collapsed in my arms," Sonya said.

"Why did you not call for me or someone to help him?" Paul asked even sterner.

"He would not let me," Sonya said defensively. "I was unable to leave him. My mind would not let me."

"Ma'el, that is all that I can stand!" Paul cried. "You will tell me exactly what is happening to you, or you will make this journey alone!"

Ma'el whispered for Sonya to release him and let him stand on his own. When Sonya did, she and Paul found that he had recovered enough to stand, but his walk was very wobbly. He took the portable cannon Paul had dropped and placed it in his hands. "Very well, Paul. Perhaps we can talk on the way."

Paul jerked his head in frustration, and he shot one of the portables from the cannon signifying that he had reluctantly agreed to Ma'el's request. "Where is Salvius?"

"I am here," Julianus cried. "I am ready to make the journey."

Sonya and Paul led Ma'el and Julianus to the opened portal, and they all disappeared in its blue light. When they emerged from the other side of the tunnel, they found themselves in a deep and dark underground cave. Ma'el dropped his façade giving Paul enough light to find the energy lanterns he had taken with him. With enough light now, Sonya examined the portal from which they had just emerged. It was very tiny. All of it that was visible was the two power conduits that stuck out of the cavern walls like stalagmites.

"I have never seen such a strange portal before," Sonya said.

"It is a mono-directional portal that Ma'el and I built into this chamber when we uncovered it," Paul said.

"We are currently in a dead lava tube by a giant ridge in the Atlantic ocean," Ma'el said.

Paul handed Sonya and Julianus an oddly shaped alien mask and showed her how to put it on by putting on his own. "The air is very thin down here," Paul told them. "We are several feet beneath the ocean floor. As we get further down, you will find that there is very little oxygen here."

"I understand," Sonya said. "So this is where Ha'gel is located."

"Ha'gel was imprisoned by my Taelon ancestors millions of years ago," Ma'el explained, pointing them to the direction in which they needed to go. "He is probably one of the oldest living things in the entire universe. I could not begin to explain what force of nature or lack thereof keeps Kimera living as long as they do, but I suspect that the pod in which Ha'gel lives puts him in some form of stasis. That pod is his prison."

"How did he end up here?" Sonya asked.

"By simple chance of fate," Paul said. "Apparently, as part of his sentence, the ancient Taelons locked him in the pod that is his prison and dumped it into the deep dark abyss of space, where he would wander and dwell alone for millennia."

"It is a cruel punishment for a Kimera due to their unbelievably long life spans," Ma'el said.

"Why did he receive such a terrible punishment?" asked Sonya.

"Perhaps he deserved it," Julianus snottily.

"You do not know that," Sonya protested.

Ma'el lifted his hand to prevent the argument from furthering itself. "Ha'gel was one of the last Kimera that my species hunted down and destroyed," Ma'el said. "The Taelon history records state that he tried to organize an uprising, but from what more recent Taelon scholars have discovered about Kimeran nature and from the testimony of Ha'gel himself, it is highly unlikely that is the true reason."

"What do you believe?" Sonya asked Ma'el.

"I believe what Ha'gel told me. He says that the Taelons imprisoned him and sentenced him to forever drift across the universe because he was one of the few Kimera still alive during the ancient Taelon uprising and war against the Kimera. He will not tell me exactly what his position was during that time, but based on the form of punishment, he must have been someone very important to the Kimera. Perhaps he was a leader or one of the scientists who participated in the experimentation of the Taelons."

"The Kimera experimented on Taelons?" Sonya asked in an intrigued tone.

"I will not bore you with needless details," Ma'el said. "I will simply tell you that in spite of the manner in which the Kimera experimented on the Taelons, the results of those experiments saved our species. We have the Kimera to thank for the Commonality, and we have the Kimera to thank for the common Taelon form that has changed very little since the day they introduced us to the Commonality and forever altered our forms."

"Then, the Taelon form that you have now is the form the Taelons would have truly taken had they been allowed to evolve naturally without Kimeran interference," Sonya surmised.

Ma'el continued the conversation with Sonya along the long dark corridor. Julianus listened quietly and attentively adding his two cents whenever he felt the need. Paul could tell by the strength of Ma'el's voice and the stride of his walk that his health was improving. He was glad. He listened about how Ma'el told Sonya what the Taelon had told him years ago, how the high priest convinced the Taelon tribes to unite and turn against their Kimeran masters. He then told her how the high priest took over the Taelon Commonality and had been controlling the Taelon's evolutionary path ever since. He told her about how the high priest was a purist who saw the Taelon form as the closest being to perfection in the universe. All the Taelons needed was some evolutionary tweaking, and the Taelons would therefore be perfect. He told her how the Taelons were suffering because the high priest had used the Commonality to force them to evolve too quickly. He told her how Taelon scientists had discovered this new form that Ma'el had taken, and he told her how only by rejecting the Commonality and returning to their natural path of evolution could the Taelons save themselves from the high priest's madness.

That was when Paul stopped him and reminded Ma'el of his promise to tell Paul exactly what was happening to him. But before he could force the answer out of Ma'el, the Taelon pointed to a small widening in the tunnel and the brown alien pod at its center.

"How are you able to communicate with Ha'gel?" Sonya asked Ma'el.

"Very delicately," Ma'el answered reaching for one of the portable virtual glass shields that Paul had brought with him.

Paul handed a violet orb to Ma'el and cocked his energy pistol. Sonya immediately backed behind Paul, but Julianus stood next to Ma'el without fear. Ma'el slowly approached the large pod and pressed his fingers against one of the symbols carved on its surface. The middle of the pod melted away to reveal an opening and a green glowing figure inside. Ma'el dropped the energy orb and rushed back to his followers just before the virtual glass shield could activate.

From her experience with Ma'el's energy form, Sonya could see that two glowing white lights on the head of the figure were its eyes. It was glaring at them. It climbed out of the pod and tried to march toward them, but the virtual glass shield knocked him back.

It spoke to Ma'el in a manner most strange to Sonya. It sounded less like a language and more like incoherent whispering in the background of a deep hum. She wondered how in the world Ma'el could understand it.

You will never completely trust me, will you Ma'el?

"I will openly admit that I am a Taelon first and a scientist second," Ma'el said. "It is not in my nature to fully trust a Kimera."

Even though if it were not for me, you would not have succeeded in breaking away from the Commonality?

"Perhaps you have forgotten what you did after that, you know, back when this pod was still located on the surface of the planet," Ma'el retorted. "Had it not been for Paul's quick thinking I never would have stopped you."

"What is he referring to, Paul?" Sonya whispered.

"Ma'el and I temporarily released Ha'gel with hopes that he would help Ma'el sever his link to the Commonality without devolving. Ha'gel did help him, but afterwards his body erupted in a brilliant white light and he escaped while Ma'el was still weak from the transformation. He escaped into a nearby village and attempted to mate with the women there. He could not control his impulses and many died before Julianus and I managed to lure him back into his prison. After Ma'el recovered, he and I put the pod down here."

"I told you he deserved his punishment," Julianus told Sonya haughtily, suggesting to Sonya that he had known about Ha'gel all along.

"His actions were in fact in reaction to his imprisonment," Sonya protested. "It is immoral and unethical to imprison a being for what he could do. If that were the case we would all be in prisons."

"I did not come here to rekindle fond memories," Ma'el said during the humans' conversation. "I came here because I seek your advice."

What have you done, Ma'el? What ancient force have you toyed with now?

"Do not patronize me," Ma'el said bitterly. "I do what I do for—"

For your sibling. Yes. Do not remind me of your unfathomably unbending loyalty to a Taelon who cannot even remember you. I have told you time and time again that this path would be your destruction, and from the appearance of your energy pathways, my prediction was correct. So tell me, what have you done?

"I do not know," Ma'el responded. Paul, Sonya, and Julianus had ceased their whispering and were now listening attentively to the conversation that was one-way to them. "My powers are growing stronger, so strong that they are beyond my control. I have these spells where I lose consciousness. I hear many incoherent voices—thoughts and memories that I have trouble understanding. When the spells cease, I awaken in terrible pain and disorientation, so terrible that I can barely recall my own surroundings."

Spells that are also proving detrimental to your health as well.

"Yes," Ma'el replied.

It is not your newfound form that is to blame. Your powers are obviously being amplified by an outside force. You must have gone through with it, despite all my warnings for you not to.

"I have no choice. You know just as well as I that she cannot stand against the power of the priests without my gifts, and this is the only way I know of to transfer them to her now that I am unable to return. You were the very one who suggested it to me."

I suggested it because you manipulated the information out of me as you do with all your subjects, Ha'gel stated in anger. I explicitly told you to avoid the power of the gateway. It is far too strong for any telepath with such a strong sensory connection as you to handle. But then, your kind has been known to never heed the advice of strangers. You barely listen to yourselves as it is. Tell me, do you honestly believe that the Taelons will avoid your warnings not to come to Earth?

"I would not be constructing the labyrinth if I did."

And you would be sparing your life.

"Ma'el! What is he telling you?" Paul demanded.

Ha'gel's eyes turned towards Paul, Sonya and Julianus in their narrow glare. Paul could not tell, but he believed that Ha'gel was smiling wryly at them both. His body erupted in a light so bright that turning away still hurt the humans' eyes. When the light finally subsided, an old white man in a silver bio-suit very similar to a Taelon's was staring at them.

"I am telling your sovereign why his foolishness is killing him," Ha'gel said in a voice that suited his new human form well.

Ma'el sighed solemnly and shook his head.

"Has he told you exactly what he is building?" Ha'gel asked them.

"A portal that will connect him to his sibling and enable him to pass his powers on to her," Sonya replied.

"Is that all he has told you?" Ha'gel asked.

"He has also told us that this is a line between this world and the next," Paul said.

"I see," Ha'gel replied. "Perhaps I may fill any holes Ma'el has left for you. The whole of the universe is riddled with planes of existence—spiritual dimensions, if you will—that are far beyond your comprehension. When we die, our essence exits this plane and enters a higher plane, a plane where the dead belong. From time to time, it is not uncommon for the dimensional fabric that divides the living plane and the dead plane to weaken. Psychics, particularly telepaths or prophets, can sense these disfigurements in the fabric because the energy it takes for the fabric to weaken acts as a natural amplifier of their powers. However, only the most powerful psychics can pinpoint the exact spot of weakness."

"That is how I discovered the location of the gateway," Ma'el said.

"I told Ma'el long ago that if someone summoned a high enough concentration of energy at these weak spots, he could use it to tear a hole between the two planes thus creating a spiritual gateway between this world and the next."

"But Ma'el does not intend to cross over through the gateway. He meant for his sibling to find it later in time and open the gateway herself," Sonya said. "Could the distortion not fix itself until then, Ma'el?"

"Once a weak spot between this world and the next emerges," Ma'el explained, "it can take millions of years for the energy causing such a weakness to decay. Using my powers, I found two powerful and efficient distortions on Earth. One is in the Atlantic. The other is where we are building."

"Your Taelon is killing himself," Ha'gel surmised for them. "The longer he works with you at the gateway, the more powerful his psychic powers grow. It is bad enough that his newfound form unleashed the full fury of his powers. The latest time Ma'el visited me it was in order for me to help him control his powers in his new form. Might I add that was also when he manipulated the information of the gateway from my tongue? Now, Ma'el is feeling the consequences of his decision to harness the power of the gateway. The gateway is only making a bad situation worse. These spells you are experiencing, Ma'el, are most likely symptoms of the amplification of your foresight. Soon your telepathy and any minor powers you may have will follow. And you know what happens to you when your telepathy and your foresight both fall beyond your control."

Ma'el shuddered, and Paul gritted his teeth.

"I do not understand," Julianus said. "What happens?"

Paul huffed in repressed anger. "When Ma'el's telepathic powers combine with his foresight, he becomes delusional. The thoughts he reads from others become so loud that they essentially turn into voices. The visions his prophetic powers grant him become so strong that he feels as if he is in their world. The visions and the voices blend together into a terrible maelstrom of the mind. If he cannot regain control of his powers, the onslaught of the maelstrom will ceaselessly plague Ma'el's consciousness."

"Simply put, if Ma'el continues to remain close to the gateway, the fury of his own powers will drive him mad," Ha'gel said.

"No!" Julianus cried. "No! This cannot happen! Ma'el you should let Paul and me continue to oversee construction of the labyrinth. We are not psychic, so the tear will not affect us. We are very close to being finished. Travel the world and continue your research. Return to the land that was once Paul's home. Do anything, but do not stay by the labyrinth! It will kill you!"

But Paul saw the hopeless look in Ma'el's eyes, and he knew that Ma'el had already made his decision.

"I cannot do that, Salvius," Ma'el said solemnly. "Paul knows why. He has always known."

"Known what?" Julianus demanded.

"Paul, please tell me, what is happening to Ma'el?" Sonya pleaded.

"You told me that it would not come for centuries," Paul said sternly to Ma'el.

"Had the Taelon Synod not outlawed all forms of time travel, it would not have," Ma'el answered Paul, and he shifted his gaze toward Sonya, who he saw had tears forming in her eyes. "Fairest Sonya, there is nothing that can save me. Regardless of whether or not I stay away from the labyrinth, a much slower and more painful death awaits me."

"Ma'el and I discovered that the mixture of gases in the atmosphere is poisonous to Taelons," Paul said. "At first we avoided it by dividing our time between Earth and the rest of the universe. That is where Ma'el took me and showed me the wonders of the world beyond our own. However, when the Taelons outlawed all forms of time travel, Ma'el was forced to return to Earth to stay. Ma'el fell very ill, and just before he could pass into the next plane of existence, he confessed to me that there was a way to save him."

"What?" Sonya asked desperately. "What way?"

"Humans produce certain natural enzymes in their bodies that a Taelon could use to adapt to this atmosphere. If I could gain access to these enzymes, I would be able to survive, but the only process I have at my hands that could do that requires something vital to Paul's existence," Ma'el said.

"Human blood," Paul said. "He would have to drain me of my blood in order to save himself, and he said he would rather die than do that."

"That was when Paul, in a fit of rage, cut his own hand with a knife and told me to drink from it like some pathetic vampire," Ma'el said bitterly. "I was so overcome by my own survival instincts that I did. It was the most disgusting and the most shameful thing I have ever done, and it nearly killed him and just barely saved me."

"That is why I do not have to sleep in the cryo-chambers like you, Sonya, and the rest of the followers in order to live for so long," Paul explained. "Ma'el and I agreed to put me through a highly experimental procedure that forever altered my body. My entire nervous system and circulatory system are a delicate mixture of Taelon and human. It was the most painful and life-threatening thing I ever did for Ma'el, but I survived. Now, I have all but given up my humanity. I have become the closest thing there is to a Taelon-human hybrid."

"And as a side-effect, his body stopped aging," Ma'el said. "I have given Paul immortality in order to save myself from death. Paul merely has to prick his finger, and the blood that drains from his body is riddled with the enzymes and nutrients I need to battle the effects of this atmosphere. Because of his enhancements, he is able to heal faster and recover faster, thus making him a never-ending fountain of the medicine I need to live."

"Why did you not tell me sooner?" Paul cried. "You said it would keep you alive forever, if not for centuries."

"I thought it would," Ma'el breathed, angry with himself for not telling Paul sooner. "It should have, but it has not. There is nothing that can stop this atmosphere from poisoning me. All your enzymes do is act as anti-venom. As long as I remain exposed to the toxic atmosphere, I continue to receive a daily supply of poison. Your enzymes were only delaying the inevitable."

"How long have you known this, Ma'el?" Paul asked him sternly.

"Years," Ma'el replied.

"And the power emitting from the weak spot is only accelerating the process," Ha'gel said. "Your companion is finished. No matter what he does, he will die. All he has to choose is the method of his own destruction."

Sonya burst into tears, but Paul was too numb to have any kind of reaction to this news. He was lost in the sadness that lay within Ma'el's deep blue eyes. Julianus seemed furious.

"If you know all of this, Ma'el, why did you come to me?" Ha'gel asked Ma'el bluntly.

"I need to stay alive as long as I can," Ma'el said. "There is still much left for me to do. I need your wisdom. Tell me what I may do."

Ha'gel nodded, indicating that he was thinking. "You can slow the process, of course, if you stay away from the gateway."

"That is not an option," Ma'el said firmly.

"Ma'el! At least consider it!" Julianus begged.

"That is not an option," Ma'el repeated, glaring at Julianus as he said it.

Ha'gel continued his pondering. When he finally met Ma'el's gaze once more, his face was grim. "Then, there is no other wisdom I have to offer other than to continue the methods you are using as of now."

"Very well," Ma'el said in a numb voice. "Then, how long do I have?"

"If you stay away from the distortion, months. If not, weeks," Ha'gel replied.

Ma'el's face was now as grim as Ha'gel's. "Perhaps I _should_ release you, seeing as I may never get another chance. After all, this lava tube will eventually fill with water as the salt water erodes the rock. Then, no one may find you."

"No," Ha'gel disagreed. "You and I possess the same abilities of foresight, Ma'el. One day, I will be free, and then I will have my own destiny to fulfill."

"What is this destiny?" Paul asked.

"I cannot tell you that," Ha'gel said. "All I can say is that it involves your sibling, Ma'el. It may mean her life in the end."

"Then, I will take my leave now," Ma'el said. "Goodbye, Ha'gel."

Ha'gel's human body melted away to reveal his true form. Farewell, Ma'el. He returned to the inside of his prison, and Ma'el approached to remove the virtual glass shield. I know what you would have your sibling do, Ma'el. May her heart and her spirit be as strong as you believe it to be, or else your species will pass into myth.

Those were Ha'gel's last words to Ma'el, and Ma'el did not reply. He simply waited for the prison door to close. Then dropped the virtual glass shield and returned to Paul, Sonya, and Julianus.

When Sonya could no longer stand it, she threw herself into Ma'el's arms in tears. "You cannot leave us, Ma'el! You cannot die! I have known you all my life! What other life is there for me without you?"

"Sonya!" Ma'el said sternly, and he grabbed her arms and forced her to release him. "Control your emotions."

"But she is right!" Julianus yelled. "You do not deserve this fate! We cannot function without you! Humanity needs you!"

"Humanity does not need a Taelon to save it. Humanity can only save itself," Ma'el protested. "And contrary to what you believe, Salvius, I am not a god that can live forever. I would not require Paul's services if I were. If it were not this, it would be something else. Death is inevitable, and you will do well to accept it."

"But surely we can change that. We can give you more time. Perhaps you could flee to another planet and wait for the Taelon arrival," Julianus suggested desperately.

"And do what? The Taelon arrival will not come for thousands of years. My life force will have expired by then."

"We could entomb you in the cryo-chamber somewhere far from this planet."

"Are you blind, Salvius!" Ma'el cried. "We have already extracted the interdimensional core and siphoned its energy from my ship. The portals we have now lack the power to cross the intergalactic distances. I am stranded on this planet, and it is here I will die!"

"Surely there is something we can do!" Julianus cried in frustration. "I will not accept your death."

"Salvius! This is my payment to the divine for all that I have engineered and all the events I have set in motion. I will do everything in my power to assure their success even if it costs me my life. I am not through yet. Fate is giving me the chance to change the future of my species, and I will not let it go astray."

"But surely you have done enough. We can take it from here Ma'el."

"No! You cannot!" Ma'el yelled, growing tired of this argument. "Not yet. I must be prepared for all possible outcomes. My sister must be prepared for every challenge. I have not seen that yet, and I will continue to work until I have prepared for all that can happen to her."

Sonya continued to weep quietly.

"Oh, Sonya," Ma'el sighed piteously. "You are a human. There is plenty of life left for you without me. There is still plenty for you to experience. You should not mourn my passing. You should celebrate my moving on to a better place. You and your kind have made my last days the best days of my life, and regardless of the ending I face, I would not have this any other way. I need you to be strong, Sonya."

"We do not know how to go on, Ma'el. We do not know how to live without you," Sonya wept.

"Yes, you do," Ma'el said, staring at Paul as he said it. "You all know. Sonya, I have chosen you."

"Me?" Sonya asked. "What do you mean?"

"It was always my intention to reward humanity for its hospitality to me," Ma'el said. "It was always my intention to give humanity the means to open the eyes of the Taelons who will follow me. I have chosen you, Sonya, to be the one to produce my legacy."

Looking at Ma'el as he said that, a new sensation overcame Paul. He did not know if it was hope. All he knew was that it lifted his spirits and gave him the means to brave the journey home without fear and without sorrow.

* * *

There was light piano music playing in the background of the wooden walls and floor of the brand new spa. The sounds of the whirlpool tubs were like a docile accompaniment, and the masseuse's rhythmic presses against her back were like the beat. The room smelled of lilac flowers. It was coming from the massage oil that was sinking into her pores.

And Renee suddenly thought about Liam. She wondered what he was doing right now. Was he happy doing it? Was he all right?

The masseuse told her to relax. Liam always did this to her. Her heart raced, her stomach sank, her breathing shallowed, and her muscles tensed whenever she thought about him. Several men had produced this kind of feeling, but it was always short-lived. But now, this feeling never went away no matter how hard Renee tried to push it out. Maybe that was why she had convinced herself that she was in love with him. But why Liam? Why not somebody else? What made him so different than all those other men she had met?

The process was always the same for her. At some point in her relaxation time, her thoughts would drift to him. Something or someone would remind her of him. A scent, a sight, a song—something always reminded her of him. Sometimes it did not have to even be a sense. Sometimes she was so relaxed that her thoughts naturally drifted that way. And then it would start up again. She would rack her brain trying to figure out exactly what it was about him that had produced this emotion called love, this emotion that had produced so much pain between them. This emotion that had turned him into a brick wall, her into a frightened little animal, and Da'an into a madwoman.

Then, she would curse Da'an in her mind. She would curse her with all her might. Renee was a sensible person. She knew that there was nothing romantic between Liam and Da'an, and there never would be. If it were just that, there would be no problem. It was the fact that Liam and Da'an had so much that she and Liam didn't. Da'an and Liam's lives were so full of parallels that it was disgusting. They shared virtually the same familial problems, their personalities were virtually the same, they had the same goals and ambitions, and, worst of all, when something affected just one of them, it would filter to affect them both and then everyone and everything close to them. Renee simply had no way to compete. Renee had realized from this experience that as long as she had Liam, she would be sharing him with Da'an. Liam worried about her constantly. Every conversation seemed to turn to her. It was nauseating that just one person could produce such a powerful effect on so many people.

If only Renee had that kind of power. If only she had that kind of influence.

"That's enough, Blake," she suddenly said.

"You have fifteen more minutes left," the masseuse said.

"You'll get paid in full. I need to be alone," Renee said rising and wrapping the towel firmly over her chest. Then, she marched out of the spa room to find her clothes.

Even in the middle of nowhere, Renee was never really alone. So many things irritated her now. Even Hubble's charm got on her nerves. He had escorted her to many different campaign charity balls and dinner parties for the upcoming elections. He had danced with her and kissed her hand on several different occasions. He had tried to charm her with his dry political wit. At the end of the day, however, Renee found herself repulsed. Not by him. By herself. She was repulsed with herself for resorting to dating other men in front of Liam just to make him jealous. She was even more repulsed with herself that he didn't seem to care. Was he just really good at holding it in? If so, he had never been that way before.

Damn that Taelon wench! It seemed that every drop of her personality could and would find its way underneath Liam's skin!

Then, she thought of Joshua. The poor man was nothing more than an outsider looking in. But there was something there between them. Renee felt it. She felt it whenever she and he ducked out of a company function just to talk. It was no wonder the papers all said they were dating. She pitied him. Ever since his father died, Joshua wanted nothing to do with the Resistance or the ANA. It all probably reminded him too much of his father. Even after all that his father had done to save him, after sacrificing himself for Joshua's life, Joshua was running from him. He was so afraid of turning out like Jonathan Doors. Was it really all that bad turning into Jonathan? Was any of it all that bad?

Renee silenced her rambling mind and tried to regain her focus after she finished putting on her clothes by going to the kitchen for something to eat. Some brief interaction between the cooks and telling them to fix her something light would probably get her mind off things. She paid attention to the sound of her shoes walking on the wooden floor. The smell of the kitchen was like an olfactory beacon. She let the aroma of cooked meats and spices draw her into the room. Her pace quickened with anticipation when she turned the corner.

Damn it! She stopped in her tracks and all her senses went bland. It was Joshua. She would probably want his company later in the evening, but not now.

"Hi, Renee. Got hungry too, huh?" Joshua asked politely standing.

"Yeah, I guess," Renee said, trying her best to hide her irritation.

"Well, sit with me," Joshua said pulling out a chair for her.

"Um, give me a second," Renee said. She walked quickly to the kitchen and told the chef what she wanted. Then, she slowly walked to the chair, still waiting for her irritation to subside.

"So how was the spa?" Joshua asked her. He always asked her this. It was his sad attempt at making conversation. Renee had figured out a long time ago that Joshua was not good with starting a conversation. He was wonderful at contributing to one, but most assuredly not starting one.

"That guy's elbows are too hard. It felt like two drill bits were going into my back."

"You must have had Blake," Joshua said. "He's new. I don't really care for him either. He's just here on apprenticeship."

"I didn't know masseuses had apprentices," Renee said.

"Just the really good ones," Joshua said. "You should try Rebecca. That woman's got hands like the goddess Aphrodite. But I figured you wanted a guy."

"You mean you wanted another male with his hands on me?"

"Keeping in mind that Blake is gay and gets absolutely nothing from the deal, then yes."

Renee chuckled, trying to let herself get caught into the conversation. "So you're thinking of buying this whole area?"

"Yeah, Joshua Doors the rancher," Joshua chuckled. "Who knew?"

"It happens more often than you think."

"I just needed to get away from all of it. Ever since my dad died, things just haven't been as clear to me as they were before."

"Where you're going with your life? What's out there? What's important and what's not? Things like that?"

"Yeah. Exactly," Joshua said. "Wow. We see each other off and on, but we can read each other like a book. Explain that one."

"I just know what you're talking about. I went through the same thing when my mother died. Luckily I was so young when it happened, I had time to pull myself together."

"I think the whole world would've been better off if he had died that early."

"You don't really mean that Joshua," Renee said sympathetically.

"It's wrong. I know. But you know? Remember when we thought he was dead the first time?"

"When he faked his death? Of course I remember."

"I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel like I'd lost anything. Even all those months before his broadcast, nothing hit me. I waited for it to happen, but nothing happened. In fact, I was relieved. I felt like this huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders. Every time I turned around, he wasn't there anymore. But this time, this time when he died, I felt nothing but…pain. Nothing's clear to me anymore. I feel like there's a new burden this time, and it's even worse. Maybe it's because he died for me, and the first time, he was so far away from me. I don't know what it was, but I can't be in that company, at those charity events, in Washington, DC, without feeling this terrible burden. When I'm here, it's gone."

"Is that why you brought me here with you?"

"You mean it's not helping you?"

"It's helping but," Renee said uneasily, "it's not taking it away. I still feel the remnants of the burden. It doesn't really go away, or if it does, it's only for a short while."

"Give this place some time to grow on you. It grew on me. I love coming out here."

"I don't know how long I can stay out here."

"What? You've got some guy to go home to?" Joshua teased.

"Uh…no," Renee said humorously and nervously at the same time. "It's my job and the people I work with."

Joshua sighed. "You mean the Resistance and the ANA?"

Renee thanked God that one of the servants had brought them both a glass of champagne. She drank half of it. Then she asked him for another glass just before he left.

"Renee, you don't owe those people anything."

"What are you talking about? I've been Resistance since day one. I owe them everything."

"Just because you're very loyal to someone doesn't mean that you owe them anything. If anything, they owe you. It always happens. You show up to work with the latest Taelon scandal fresh in your mind and you enter this rut of depression. You pour out your heart and soul over what's wrong with this world and no matter what you do, you can't seem to fix it. The Resistance is nothing more than your little crusade to change the world. Well, we can't change the world. We can only change parts of it."

"I'd like to think I'm trying to change a very big part of it then," Renee said.

"But that's just the thing. There is no progress," Joshua said. "The more we change things, the more they stay the same. How is now any more different than five years ago when the Taelons first arrived? The Taelon Synod was revered and adored for all they did to help us. Then, the Resistance helped expose the truth, and they've just been replaced with someone else. They've been replaced by another group of Taelons no different than them. And yet we still love and revere the priests just because they're 'a change' from the Synod. It seems that all the Resistance is working for is nothing but a remake of the same old movie."

"I don't believe that. Humanity is much more aware of the Taelons' treachery. Because of what people like your father did, humanity's eyes have been opened and now we're really working to defeat the Taelons."

Joshua shook his head in pity. "Are you Renee? Are you really working to _defeat_ the Taelons? Or are you trying to come up with some kind of peaceful compromise, some live and let live policy? Because if you're aiming for the latter, you'll never get it. If the Taelons weren't willing to compromise before with the Resistance, what makes you think they'll listen now?"

"It's not the Resistance's job to come up with a solution," Renee argued. "It's the Resistance's job to open the eyes of the people who can make the solutions—our leaders, our public figures, our most influential people. We've done that. Look at the ANA. Five years ago, the entire world would've called the ANA blasphemy. No one would have even thought to create such an organization."

"An organization that spends more time debating over what to do than actually doing something. The governments that are part of the ANA want a resolution, but none of them are willing to take credit for executing it, especially now that the priests have regained all the power that the Synod lost. For God's sake Renee, the priests have had an audience with the Pope. Hubble Urick, Liam Kincaid—all of those 'resistance' leaders are holding you back. You can't change things Renee. Everything today is just a better looking picture of yesterday—or worse, depending on what day it is."

"That's a very existential way of looking at things," Renee said rolling her eyes.

"No, existentialism emphasizes that we can't do anything about anything in our lives so we might as well do whatever we want. I think the word you're looking for is nihilistic."

Renee sighed and gulped down the remaining champagne. The waiter as if on cue returned with the bottle, and Renee quickly poured herself another glass. What a sardonic little celebration they were having! A celebration of how easy it is to just give up.

* * *

Rembrandt returned the next day with a somewhat more positive outlook. He had no idea why. Perhaps it was because he had cleared his schedule enough to where he actually had all the time in the world to spend with Ma'el. But then, the idea that he was beginning to look forward to the visits they shared scared him. He believed that he had convinced himself that this really wasn't Ma'el, but Da'an with some alien version of multiple personality disorder. However, this anomaly seemed to know things Da'an could never possibly know. Or could she? For some reason he could not get his brain around what was happening to her.

As he walked Ariel to yet another day in tutoring, he came to a realization, a realization that never would have hit him without these frequent visits to the anomaly that called itself Ma'el: he really didn't know as much about Da'an that he thought he did, and she didn't know that much about him. Even though they shared a bed together, a home together, and even a child together, they were still strangers. Maybe that old phrase "The more things change, the more they stay the same" had some basis in fact. Maybe this was why he was looking forward to all these visits. It was a bizarre method for him to pour his heart and soul out to the woman he loved, in some form, and for her to pour out her heart and soul to him, in some form.

"Sir?"

"What is it, sprout?"

"One of my tutors told me that pretty soon they'll be going away, and they said that I could come with them if I wanted. Are we gonna go with them, and is ma'am coming too?"

Rembrandt shook his head and wondered bitterly why the Espelons would relay such information to her. "I don't know yet. Do you want to go?"

"I don't know. If ma'am's going then, yeah, I want to go."

"I'll talk it over with her when I get the chance," Rembrandt lied.

"Okay. I'll wait for you."

"Yeah, I know," Rembrandt said distantly.

Following the same routine, he dropped Ariel off at the ANA and then walked the rest of the way to the hospital. Ta'lay met him, again, and she led him into that room, into which she refused to walk, again. It amazed Rembrandt how quickly he could get used to a new routine. Perhaps that stemmed from all the years he had spent in the military.

When he walked into the room, he found Ma'el contorted in a gymnast's bridge. His extremely long hair had spread on the floor under his feet and hands like a rug.

"What are you doing?" Rembrandt had to ask.

"Please do not tell me you believe that Taelons do not need to stretch their joints every once and a while," Ma'el shot back, reverting to a lying position. "It is horribly cramped in here. I used to meditate like this with my sister when I was younger. I stopped after my departure to Earth."

"How come?"

"Because I had a whole planet's worth of space in which to move. It seemed unnecessary."

Rembrandt smirked. "I'm beginning to see what Da'an liked about you so much."

"I will take that as a compliment. Speaking of my sister, what would you like to know today?"

"I thought it was my turn to bear my heart and soul to you."

"Do not dramatize to me," Ma'el ordered, lifting himself to a cross-legged sit. "There will be time enough for that later. We have the whole day to spend together, not so? I believe it will be a productive one for all of us."

"How did you—oh yeah. Never mind."

"If there is one thing you should learn from me it is how to quiet your mind. It is no wonder my sister was driven insane by your vociferous thoughts."

"Keeping in mind things were just fine between us before you decided to pass your powers to her."

"I spent too much time grieving for the hell through which I would put her in my previous life. Do not force me to bear that shame now."

"Don't judge me, then."

"That is impossible for the both of us. We are constantly judging each other, you and I. The best we can do is to acclimatize."

"Whatever you want to believe," Rembrandt said, but then he noticed something different about the room. "Hey, where's my chair?"

"They removed it."

"Why?"

"Because I asked them to. I want you to sit with me when we speak together."

"What for?"

"Call it nostalgia. Now sit," Ma'el said bitterly.

Rembrandt reluctantly followed Ma'el's instructions. He found it was no easier to just picture himself sitting cross-legged next to Da'an. In fact, that just made it all the more disturbing. When he was sitting next to Ma'el, he was just sitting next to some eccentric intellect. When he was sitting next to Da'an, he was sitting next to a psychopath. He wondered if Ma'el was doing this on purpose, and if so, what was the purpose?

"Straighten your back. You are a soldier, Brigadier General," Ma'el said.

"Is there some kind of method to this madness?" Rembrandt asked before Ma'el could take it any further.

"There is a method to everything. You are simply unable to see it," Ma'el said shifting his position so that he was looking at Rembrandt from the side. Rembrandt tried to move, but Ma'el stopped him. "I did not tell you to turn."

Rembrandt could not believe he was buying into this, but he shuffled back to his previous position.

Ma'el got even closer until his lips were right next to Rembrandt's ear. "Now listen," he whispered.

"To what?"

"Quiet the questions and the noise in your mind, and listen," Ma'el whispered firmly.

Rembrandt shut his mouth and followed Ma'el's instructions. He still had no clue what he was doing. There was nothing to listen to. The room was as quiet as empty space. All Rembrandt could do was sit there and wait for this bizarre exercise to be over, which was proving more and more difficult to do. He just wanted to speak to Ma'el. He just wanted to learn more about Da'an. That was all the listening he wanted to do because that was all they had agreed on. And the questions. He had so many questions he was ready to ask Ma'el. So many things to ask. So many holes to fill. Such a fountain of information that he had suddenly lost access to and he found himself feeling frustrated over his loss.

Suddenly he stopped. A faint low sound suddenly came to him. It was so faint that he was at first uncertain he had heard it, but when he broke his thought pattern, he realized indeed that there _was_ sound in the room. It was faint and rhythmic. It was like the faint whisper of a child, but there were no words. The beat was slow like a steady heartbeat, but this was no heartbeat. That was when he began to notice the faint streaks of air that were tickling the inside of his ear. It was Ma'el. Rembrandt was hearing the extremely faint breaths Ma'el was making in his ear. He had no time to wonder if this was intentional or not because he soon noticed another sound. It was a low humming. He had never noticed it before. When he looked up, he realized it was coming from the lights. He then began to notice other sounds. He noticed the sound of the air circulating through the vents. He noticed the whispering of his own breath passing through his nostrils. Then he noticed something strange. The beat was much faster and even lower than Ma'el's breathing. At first, he thought it was coming from him, but it wasn't. It was coming from them both. It was a heartbeat. A heartbeat? From a Taelon? He couldn't believe there was such a thing, but he was hearing it. Two heartbeats. His and Ma'el's. Beating in perfect unison. He even began to notice a correlation between the rapid breathing of Ma'el and their heartbeats. For every breath, their hearts beat three times.

"Close your eyes," Ma'el suddenly said.

Rembrandt closed them and let the sounds in the room consume him. For several minutes he just listened to the faint breaths of Ma'el and the simultaneous beating of their hearts. One (one, two three), two (four five six), three (seven eight nine)…

"Now stop," Ma'el whispered.

Rembrandt stopped counting. He stopped all counting and all thinking. That was when Ma'el placed his hands over Rembrandt's closed eyes and turned his head. _Now, Brigadier General, can you hear it?_

Rembrandt somehow understood. "Yes."

_No speaking. Again, Brigadier General. Can you hear it?_

Rembrandt's mind filled with thoughts over how he was supposed to respond, but Ma'el jerked his head around to his lips. Those breaths again quieted his thoughts. _Again, Brigadier General. Can you hear it?_

Rembrandt relaxed himself until their heartbeats were again in unison. And he began to notice another faint sound, a sound he had never heard before. At first he had thought it was the humming of the lights, but it had not been. It was never the humming of the lights. It was… voices! Hundreds and thousands of voices murmuring so quickly and so disjointed that they had actually unified into a faint hum. Like their heartbeats.

_Again, Brigadier General. Can you hear it?_

_Yes. I can hear it._

_What does it say to you?_

Rembrandt listened closely. He could actually make out words. Some of them he could not understand, but some he could. I. My. Ah. You. It. Love. Oh. To. Rembrandt.

_She is calling to you._

A flash of rage, and Rembrandt opened his eyes and pushed Ma'el backwards. "What the hell was that?"

Ma'el stood and stormed around the room. "You have no patience."

"What did you do to me? What was that, some kind of torture method?"

"You ungrateful swine!" Ma'el roared. His eyes turned red. "I just gave you the gift certain groups of your species work for years to obtain!"

"Well, you'll excuse me for sounding ungrateful, but I don't like being tortured!"

"You selfish little imbecile," Ma'el whispered in a hoarse voice that was more like a growl than a whisper. "You truly believe that this is all about you. You are so foolish to think that I am doing this because you asked it of me, that you are the subject of my methods!"

"Then, who is the subject?"

"I gave you clarity you infidel!" Ma'el hissed. "I gave you the ability to quiet your mind, to listen to the voices within the voice. You heard it. You heard what some people dream of hearing their whole lives, and you selfishly squander it because you think that my wish is to torment you, as if you mattered to me that much."

"Then why did you do it?" Rembrandt asked, calming himself and standing slowly.

Ma'el's eyes reverted back to their pupil-less white color. _My wealth. My reason. My hope. All my love to her. All my soul to her. I will always love her. I will always protect her. Ah. Da'an. _

Rembrandt dropped to his knees in shock. He felt his heart sink. He had realized his mistake—his foolish, selfish mistake!

"And you honestly believe you are worthy enough for her," Ma'el said unsympathetically. "There is not one thing I did in this realm that was not for her, and yet I still could never repay her for the peace she brought me when I was with her. They were never truly silent unless I was with her. I could never replicate it. I could never repay it. I was unworthy, and so are you."

All Rembrandt could hear was the sound of his own panting. The sound of his own desperation. "Please. You've got to let me hear her again. I can talk to her. I can help her. I know I can."

"You talk to me before you talk to her. Now, sit," Ma'el said callously.

Rembrandt dropped hard into an awkward sitting position. Ma'el sat rather calmly with his knees against his chest. "Now, what would you like to know today?"

Rembrandt thought that he was strong enough to hide his tears from Ma'el. He wasn't.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: For Tears and Rejection

"Has there been any change in her condition?" "Nothing." He has strength. Both of them do. "You are a liar and a cheat. That's all you ever were." "They're all the same! Every last on of them!" "Do you have any idea how many people you could have killed? Do you even care?" "Casualties." "I hope you rot in hell for this. You don't even care!" You do not even care! Stay away from me! You are one of them! I will kill you! I will kill you if you come near me! Let me go. I want my parent! I hate you! I hate you! I hate every last one of you! If I survive this, I will dedicate my life to getting rid of every last one of you! I hate all of you! The mission has changed. How so, high priest? I have a new purpose for you. I am ready to pursue any purpose for you, my lord. You are strong enough. You are ready to join us. However, we have one more mission for you before this ends. "Do you see a light, Liam?" "Da'an, you're alone now. We're alone now. It's just you and me. That's all it is now." It could be just you and me, Da'an. You and me together forever. I do not know what to say. Will the others accept this? It is not a question of whether or not they will accept. It is their duty to accept, and it is your duty as well What would you have me do? "What did you do to that Jaridian?" Da'an, it is Zo'or. Please do not leave me. I want to be with you. Your parent needs his rest now. You have both been through much, Zo'or. Let me go, Quo'on. Let go! I want my parent! Zo'or, you must stop this behavior. It is unbecoming of a future leader. You see me as a future leader, my lord? I see you as my best project. My greatest accomplishment. I see a path of spiritual glory. I see perfection, and I see you helping me achieve that perfection Da'an. Be my enforcer. Be my sleeper. Be my strength. Be my child of the gods. I am…honored. What would you have me do? Marry me. Ar'ron, you cannot ask that of me. Please say that you will be my child. My parent! I want my parent! Da'an! Da'an, why will you not look at me? Let me go, Quo'on! Parent! Da'an! Da'an! Da'an— I just do not know, Ar'ron. I do not know. Please give me time to think of this. Until then, come with me. I want to take you some place special What is this place, Hu'ba? This is Ka'fil and my favorite spot. This is the most beautiful spot on the entire Taelon planet. It is where the truest believers in the Ka'ar'paaj ritual climb to wait for the moons to eclipse. This is the purest spot, the most untouchable spot. Why did you bring me here? I want you to remember this place. If you recall nothing of us or our time together, I want you to remember this place. Keep this image deep in your mind. Bury it deep down where no one can touch it. You will understand why soon.

* * *

Ma'el could barely walk when he awoke. He had a terrible aching in his back and his chest. He knew he was in his room, but he had forgotten how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was leaving Ha'gel's prison with Sonya, Paul and Julianus. Perhaps they had brought him back. Ma'el struggled for some kind of support to help him stand. He finally found that in one of the pillars. He tried to pull himself up, but his hands were shaking too violently for him to get a firm enough grip. He grabbed the pillar with both his hands, and then he forced his body to its feet. The force against the pillar was so strong that it toppled over and took Ma'el back to the floor with it. The flowerpot that once sat atop the pillar shattered, scattering dirt and petals all over the elegant blue rug.

Ma'el heard the sound of rapid footsteps coming closer. Then, he heard the sound of his door opening. A voice cried out his name, and a pair of strong hands pulled him up and sat him on his bed.

Ma'el looked up to acknowledge the man who had helped him. It was Julianus.

"Why…are you here?" Ma'el asked while attempting to catch his breath.

"I came to reason with you, and apparently I came here just in time."

"Reason with me for what purpose?" Ma'el breathed.

"You cannot stay here," Julianus said sternly. "If you stay here any longer, you will die, and so I am arranging to have you transported far away from here."

"Release me, you insipid fanatic!" Ma'el gritted through his teeth.

"You are obviously delirious, and so I shall take you away from here by force!" Julianus cried attempting to drag Ma'el out of his room.

"You are unable to stand," Ma'el panted.

Julianus suddenly felt his legs turn into lead and he collapsed on the blue tapestry on Ma'el's floor with Ma'el still in his arms.

Ma'el pushed himself away and back to his bed to pull himself up.

"Your species has survived for hundreds of years without me," Ma'el said. "I am quite certain that it will continue to do so when I am gone."

"But I have learned so much from you. You have enlightened me and the rest of the followers. We simply cannot let you die like this. You deserve a better death. You should not pay for bettering our species like this."

"Salvius, stop it!" Ma'el cried. "You do not understand. None of you do!"

"Because you will not let us! You do not care for us! You are selfish! After all we have done for you, you still keep secrets from us and treat us like your servants!"

"What were you expecting from me, Salvius?" Ma'el said sinisterly. "A holy man?"

Julianus winced.

"Mere tricks and premonitions are not the strongest mind, Salvius. I have to bear this burden so that she may learn from my mistakes. You are absolutely right, Salvius. I am selfish. I am not a holy man. I am a puppet master, and I am paying with my life for hundreds of years of manipulating your people and the threads of time themselves to suit my will. Fate granted me a chance to create a future, and I took that chance and more. And now, I pass the burden to her. I pass my curse on to her, and I can see her in the future scorning me for it. I am not giving her a fair exchange. She saved me from myself, and my payment to her is the very thing from which she saved me."

"Then you believe you deserve to die?" Julianus asked angrily. "You believe that she would want this from you? To die like this?"

"Very well, Salvius. You are a smart man, and an ambitious one at that. That is what drew me to recruit you in the first place," Ma'el said condescendingly. "I will be level with you, and tell you everything I am planning. My intention is to pass my gifts on to my sister, and the only way I can do that is through the gateway."

"I know this!" Julianus cried in frustration.

"And if you succeed in this insipid little plan of yours to take me far away from the gateway to have a painful, degrading, and slow death at the hands of your atmosphere, exactly how do you expect me to pass my gifts to my sister then?"

"I…do not understand," Julianus said.

"My corpse will decompose instantaneously at the time of my passing. My spirit will pass, and my gifts will fade into nothing."

That was when it hit Julianus. "Then, you mean to send your body through the gateway."

"At the least, my spirit," Ma'el said. "Then, the machine will power down and wait for her. So you see, I cannot leave this place. I must die here. My powers are all I have left to give to her. There is nothing more I can do for her."

Julianus attempted to stand and found that he could, so he joined Ma'el by sitting next to him on the floor with their backs against the mattress. "Forgive me. I was irrational. I did not understand."

"You are a good friend, Salvius," Ma'el said calmly, "and there is something you can do to help me."

"How can I help? I will do anything."

"I know what the other followers think of you, Salvius," Ma'el said. "You have never been a popular man in my sect."

"I have some friends, but it was never my mission to be popular," Julianus said. "Even as a judge, I never cared for public perception. I only do what is just, and sometimes doing what is just is not what is popular. Some think I am ruthless because of this, but I say that I am the only one strong enough to do what must be done."

"Why did you come with me when I asked it of you, Salvius?" Ma'el asked manipulatively.

"I came because you understood my duty more than anyone else. You understand this because you and I are on the same side. We fight for the same thing. We fight for justice. You fight for justice against the Taelons who wronged you, and I fight for justice against those who wrong the innocent."

"That is true," Ma'el said, placing his hand on Julianus's shoulder. "You are not held back by bias or public perception. You know only what is just, and that is all you fight for. It is what drew me to you and your empire. You are above the weak, but you also fight for them. You are a citizen. Your duty is to defend the body politic. This is why you worked so hard to free me from this burden."

"Precisely," Julianus agreed.

"Hmm," Ma'el hummed ponderously. "Salvius. Suppose I told you that this ordeal was a test for you, a final test of your undying loyalty. If I were to ask of you a duty, you would accept because you feel a duty to me. You feel a duty to serve my interests because we both fight for justice, and therefore, we both fight for the same thing. Correct?"

"Yes," Julianus answered enthusiastically. "Then, my acceptance of your passing…means that I passed the test?"

"Exactly," Ma'el said. "I brought you with me those many years ago because I know that you are the only one of my group strong enough to do what must be done. You are my last resort because if I can rely on no one else, then I can certainly rely on you."

"Whatever you ask of me, I will not fail you. I will not be swayed by any opposing force even if it wears a sheep's clothes."

"I believe you," Ma'el said, his vocal tone growing stronger. "As I said, you are my last resort, and as my last resort, I have a duty for you that is of the utmost importance, far more important than any duty I have ever bestowed upon Paul. I know that I can trust you with this assignment now."

"Tell me what it is," Julianus demanded, ready to accept no matter what it was.

"As you and the rest of the followers know, once I determined how valuable your species was, I sent several messages to the Taelon Synod requesting that they not come to Earth. What my followers do not know is that the Taelon Synod has not and will not heed my warnings. They will come to Earth. They will come and they will do unspeakable things to humanity. They will sullen the name of your people, and what is most horrid is that they will do so in such a manner that the ignorant public will thank them for it. I have done much to prepare for this outcome, the centerpiece of my efforts being the labyrinth. However, in the event that all else fails, I need you there to bring forth my judgment. I need you there as my voice. I will escort you to my cryo-genenic pods at the lowest level of my ship where I will put you to sleep. You may take with you whomever you deem the worthy for this cause, but it is of the utmost importance that you survive. You will sleep for a hundred years, and then you will awaken. You will exit my ship and search for signs of my brethren in the skies. If you do not find them, you will return to your bed and you will sleep for another hundred years. You will do this until the Taelons arrive, and then, you will be responsible for the Taelons' final sentence. You will judge them, and I know that I may rely on you to cast a just sentence upon the Synod."

Julianus nodded comprehensively, taking in every word from Ma'el's voice, every syllable.

"I am offering you the chance to watch the world grow old. I am offering the closest thing to immortality there is. I am offering you the chance to oversee the progress of your own species firsthand. Do you understand what I am offering you? Please understand."

There was no hesitation is Julianus's voice or his look. "I understand perfectly. I will gladly accept such a duty."

"Beware, Salvius," Ma'el warned. "If my plan works the way it should, you may not have to cast a harsh punishment on the Synod. I want you to make an unbiased assessment of the Taelons. Remember that you are on the side of justice, and justice does not always equal death."

"I understand this, Ma'el," Julianus said. "I trust you, and I promise you that I will not fail you."

"Good," Ma'el said. "Then help me to my feet. I must show you the full extent of my ship and you have much to learn about its functions."

"I am most eager to learn," Julianus said. "Show me everything."

Ma'el let Julianus help him stand, and then he followed him outside. Just before they could start for the bridge of the ship, Ma'el felt two strong hands grab him. He jerked his head towards their owner and found Paul with a fierce look in his eyes. "Forgive me, Julianus, but I require a word with Ma'el for a moment."

"Of course," Julianus said.

"I will meet you on the bridge in a moment," Ma'el said to Julianus casually. "Try to remember not to touch anything this time."

Julianus smiled humorously, glad that Ma'el was feeling better enough to tease him and marched triumphantly down the halls of the ship.

"I take it you were in on that pathetic farce Salvius attempted," Ma'el told Paul harshly.

"Absolutely not," Paul said. "I followed him when I saw him storm on board the ship towards your quarters. Apparently, I was right to do so. Do you realize what you are doing?"

"Pray tell me, Paul," Ma'el said mockingly.

"You lied to him about the gateway, and you also lied to him about Taelon decomposition. There are methods to preserve a Taelon's body."

"If I had told him the truth, he never would have agreed to his assignment, and he would have been more determined than ever to carry me away from here like some sordid white knight."

"You have manipulated him into becoming a killer," Paul cried. "You know how much he adores you. He _is_ biased! He will sentence the Synod to death no matter what they do when they arrive. What if he succeeds and Da'an is there when he kills them all?"

"That will not happen, and you know it," Ma'el said. "I have not turned Salvius into a killer. I have turned him into a corpse. His death will be just as slow and cruel as mine."

"Then why would you do this to him?" Paul asked.

"Because I am a mortal man, Paul," Ma'el said peacefully. "Despite the accuracy of my visions, there is always the slightest chance that they may be wrong. What if my sister does not succeed? What if I am wrong and she is not strong enough to endure this? What will stop the priests and the Synod from destroying us all then? Salvius is my insurance. If it comes down to it and there is no one else left, I need a man as loyal as Salvius. Perhaps the desperation of his actions, whether he is successful or unsuccessful, will sow a seed of doubt."

"If the situation is that dire—that a Taelon must use a human against his own people—

then both our species will truly have reached a pitiful end."

"Then, we had better pray that does not happen," Ma'el said. "Will you stop him? Will you reason with him and go against my will?"

Paul chuckled wryly. "You are just a puppet master, Ma'el," he said sardonically.

"I openly admitted to the man that I was," Ma'el said. "Will you stop him?"

"I could not stop him even if I tried," Paul said. "However, you are my friend, and I trust you. I doubt I will ever understand why you are subjecting yourself to such torture. Perhaps your needs are not so complex. Perhaps they are."

"In my box, Paul, are several data crystals. They contain my journals, starting from when I was just a child. When it does happen, I want you to read them, all of them. You will find the answer to your questions in my journals."

* * *

Paul had ordered construction of the labyrinth halted until further notice, citing that Ma'el was not well. As he walked through the groups of devoted human followers, he could see the dread in their eyes. So many faces and so many hues, and yet the look on their faces was exactly the same: quiet fear. Paul had attempted to comfort them, but he could tell his words offered them no comfort. Their fears would not be settled until Ma'el was standing beside Paul, confidently, timelessly. That was something Paul could not offer them. He told them to return to the surface and enjoy their vacation. Only Sonya remained.

Paul sat with Sonya in the not yet complete center chamber of the labyrinth. The light that was amplified by the crystal towers and the floor gave the otherwise dark and dank cave a beautiful indigo hue. For hours they just sat and talked of many insignificant things. They talked of the families they had had before Ma'el. Paul told Sonya all about his adventures with Ma'el, leaving nothing out, and she listened attentively as if she were listening to the account of a knight of old. Paul told her about the wonders he had experienced with Ma'el. He told her about the embarrassing moments that Ma'el would have preferred kept forever silent. He told her about the many interesting individuals he had met. He even told her about some of his foibles and misadventures trying to understand Taelon technology and the science of space and time. He tried to keep his stories humorous so that he could hear Sonya's youthful and hearty laugh. Then, when he had no tales left to tell, he asked Sonya a question that he had never asked any of the followers: "Why did you choose to follow us when Ma'el asked it of you?"

"Oh, Paul," Sonya said bittersweetly. "I left my family, but it was because I was not happy with them. I suppose I never saw the point of our way of life. All we did was tend the fields, fields that were not ours. They belonged to someone else. All I ever did was cook and clean. There was never any point. All we were doing was delaying the inevitable. Every year, the bitter winter cold would come, and every year, we would lose at least one to the cold. That was how I lost my mother, and my father was not far behind. And then I was promised to a man I despised. You see, in a few years, it would not have mattered whether I was back in the fields or a part of heaven. I would have had no family either way, but I knew that eventually I would lose all ability to love if I stayed. That is why I ran away. I decided that no matter where I went even if I had to brave it alone, I would still have love. Then, you saved me from the wolves. I believed that your saving me was a reward from God for following my heart above all material things. So when Ma'el told me to follow him if I wished, I simply listened to what my heart told me, and it told me to follow him. And God rewarded me yet again for following my heart. He has done so by allowing me to experience a multitude of emotions and a wealth of knowledge that few will ever experience."

"And do you still retain the love that you believed you would always have?"

"That and more," Sonya said.

"Hmm," Paul chuckled. "You act as if it is impossible to live without love. I do not see it as such."

"But how can one live without love?"

"Simply," Paul shrugged.

"But love is selfless and unequivocal," Sonya said. "Love can make people do the most amazing things. It is what compels people to stay together forever. It is the greatest emotion humanity possesses."

"In the many years that I have been alive, I have learned that love fades away over time," Paul said. "Love is a dream. It begins wonderfully. Two young people meet. They fall in love, and they wed. Soon however, their like for each other fades. The only thing compelling them to stay together is children and even then, it does not last. I have watched men sleep with other women behind closed doors where their wives cannot see. I have seen men and women murder their lovers for trying to leave them for another. I have read of women getting beaten just for discounting their husband's opinion. I have even seen men cast their women aside for being violated against their will. I have seen kings execute their sons and cast out their daughters. I have seen rivalries between siblings tear apart families and kingdoms. How can there be love in a world where men, women and families treat each other so horribly? How is there love when people value the lives of their kin and kindred so cheaply? The concept of love no matter how you interpret it is a fantasy. People who claim they love each other are living in a dream. People who profess love and write poems and songs about it are either fools or liars. How can you put such a value on a thing that does not exist?"

"But don't you see? That only more so proves that people cannot live without love. Your testament proves the value of love," Sonya disagreed. "Love is real, but it is rare. If love were so abundant, it would be taken for granted and it would become cheap. As for the many terrible things many self-proclaimed lovers have done over the centuries, I would argue that you are correct. Those people were living in a dream. They were living in a fantasy that made them think they were in love, but their love was false. It was not real love. It was just a mimic, and soon they awoke and realized it. However, when they realized it, they could not handle it. They could not handle that the thing they thought they had felt for each other over the years was just a cheap counterfeit of love. They could not handle putting so much effort into a fantasy. Or perhaps there was never love to begin with as what would have been true with me had I taken the man I was promised to. It is true that love is rare, and that few humans out there can actually feel it. However, that rarity is what makes love one of the greatest emotions we have."

"Perhaps," Paul said skeptically.

"If you do not believe me, look at Ma'el," Sonya said. "See how devoted he is to his sister. He has no one else left in this world but his sister, yet he is cursed. He will never see her again and even if he did, she would not recognize him. Apparently love is not limited to people on Earth. Maybe the Taelons are having the same problem that you profess humanity to have. Maybe there is no love in their world, or there is so little love that they are convinced that it does not exist. That is why they are dying, and that is why their hope fades away. Ma'el knows that humanity has so much more potential than we realize. Humans like us have proven this to him. Ma'el saw something important in you the night you saved his life. Perhaps whatever it was he saw showed him that there is such a thing as love and that he not only feels it for his sister, but he has felt it for her since the day she was born."

Paul put his hand up against Sonya's lips to stop her from speaking. It finally came to him. "That is it! That is the answer."

"What is the answer?" Sonya asked.

"Oh, Sonya," Paul said. "I understand now why Ma'el does this."

Suddenly, Sonya flinched. Paul checked her and saw her staring at Ma'el, who was standing at the entrance tunnel. Paul found that he was nervous, and he rose quickly to confront Ma'el before Sonya could follow too closely.

"How long were you standing there, Ma'el?" Paul whispered uneasily.

"You are a fool, Paul," Ma'el said back.

"Keep your voice down, Ma'el," Paul said harshly, staring back at Sonya, who had a confused and concerned look on her face. He dragged Ma'el back into the tunnel.

"You of all people should know that love like everything else in this universe is driven by perception. Love only exists as a fantasy if you let it," Ma'el continued despite Paul's efforts to stop him. "Love is only what you make of it, just like faith. Why do you think that love and faith often are seen hand in hand? And I would think that you of all people would learn to recognize something so beautiful, especially when it is staring you in the face." Ma'el firmly pointed to the direction where they knew Sonya was standing. "That is something I would expect from my people, certainly not from you," Ma'el said harshly. "Stop acting like some pathetic Taelon and embrace the eternal gift that has been offered to you by grace of the divine. There is no reason the both of us should die so unhappily."

Paul sighed. "I cannot deny how I feel when she is by my side. I fear losing her in the way I have seen so many generations of humanity lose. I fear that like all things, what we have will wane and fade with time."

"What foul shadow of love those fools had faded because they made the mistake that Sonya would have made had she remained on that forsaken farm and married that man. They made the same mistake that you will make if you deny her. I am tired of seeing you flirt with her only to flee when the conversation becomes too serious. I am sick of seeing you whisk her away to some private, hidden gem on this planet only to come crawling back when you submit to what you call your weakness. Stop playing with her heart and stop lying to yourself. Do _me_ a favor and take her."

Ma'el marched back to the chamber to speak with Sonya. Paul shook his head humorously. _Of all the people to have say such things to me…_

"I know why you do this now, Ma'el," Paul said to him.

Ma'el stopped.

"You do this out of love for her. Not romantic love nor familial, but rather a spiritual love. The gateway allows you to feel her presence even though she will not be here for many years. It is a deep spiritual connection that goes beyond all forms of love we have in this plane."

"And what does that tell you about yourself, Paul?"

Paul did not say anything. He did not have to. He understood why Ma'el had chosen Sonya. He had chosen Sonya because Paul had chosen Sonya. Ma'el had realized it before him. A Taelon had realized it before him! He did love her, and he had loved her since the day he saved her life. He wondered if Ma'el had noticed it even then, and if that was why Ma'el had allowed her to join them.

_And that is how you will carry on when I am gone_, was Ma'el's response to Paul's thoughts.

Paul smiled. "Good night, brother Ma'el." He started back to the ship with a newfound sense of closure on the issue of Ma'el's passing. He would carry on, and that was all that mattered to him and Ma'el.

"Good night, brother Paul."

Ma'el saw the hurt in Sonya's eyes when only he came back for her. He had to laugh at this. "Do not worry about him," he assured Sonya. "Sometimes he behaves so much like a Taelon that it frightens even me."

A smile graced Sonya's face. "Maybe he spends too much time with you," she chuckled nervously. "Where did you go, my lord?"

"To put Salvius in his place in this universe," Ma'el replied. He revealed a silver orb from the front pocket of his robe and dropped it on the ground. The moment it hit, it ignited into a brilliant white light that combined with the cerulean lights and the crystal floor to turn the whole room into a beautiful prism. He had wanted the room fully lit and as clear to him as starlight so that he could appreciate Sonya's gentle features one last time.

Sonya felt like she was standing atop a snowflake falling on a cold clear winter morning.

"Give me your hand," Ma'el said mysteriously.

Ma'el's blue eyes appeared all the brighter in this kaleidoscope of colors, and Sonya was immediately hypnotized. Silently, Sonya slipped into a slumber no different than a dream. Her mind was opened to thoughts and images she had never imagined.

And squarely in the middle of this tapestry of dreams, there was a woman that she had never seen before. Her face was pale like frost but still very pretty. Her hair was not much different than Sonya's; only her hair was straight and a much brighter red. Her eyes captured Sonya just as Ma'el's had done so hundreds of times before. This had to be her. This had to be the twin Ma'el spoke so much about. Sonya felt herself getting closer to her. In her left hand was a blue rose with strange metallic thorns. The thorns were cutting into her hand. As she got closer to those eyes, it appeared that Da'an was staring right at her. Sonya was so close that she could touch her now, and she wanted to. But at that moment, Da'an marched right through her. Sonya whirled around to find out where she was going. She saw Da'an disappear into the gateway.

When Sonya turned back, she saw Ma'el. In his left hand was that same strange blue rose. Then she saw that image distort and twist like a reflection in a broken mirror. There was a blood-curdling scream in the background that nearly stopped Sonya's heart, and the image shattered into a thousand glass shards.

Sonya dropped to her knees trying to speak and ask why she had just seen what she had seen. She wanted to ask what these images meant. However, every time she opened her mouth, no sound came. As if some unseen force had overtaken her, Sonya turned around against her will and saw the gateway Da'an had walked into. The gateway distorted like ripples in a pond, and Sonya saw a brilliant white light in the background. She saw a humanoid figure inside the white light, but the light was so bright that she could not make out the features of that figure. The light burst through the gateway and consumed her.

A barrage of voices overcame her before she blacked out.

When she awoke, her head was in Ma'el's lap as his had been that day she had comforted him during one of his terrible spells.

She heard a faint hum, and then she heard Ma'el's voice. _Tell me how you feel Sonya._

"Ma'el?"

_Incorrect. Tell me how you feel Sonya._

"I feel strange."

_Incorrect. Tell me how you feel Sonya._

_I cannot describe my feelings. My body feels ill, but my mind is at peace._

_Correct._

Ma'el lifted her and sat next to her. The chamber was the deep indigo it had once been. "You now know what it feels like to be a psychic."

"I saw something strange, Ma'el," Sonya said. "I did not understand it."

"What did you see?" Ma'el asked her.

She told him everything before it could leave her memory. Ma'el nodded ponderously.

"Do you understand these images?" Sonya asked.

Ma'el's face was strange. His eyes were usually narrow, and his lips gently curled upward like a serene woman. The look seemed foreign yet strangely familiar. It came to her like lightning, the realization that this was the exact same expression Da'an had given her just before she walked into the gateway.

"I am sorry," Ma'el said distantly. "I am crying. I am screaming. The lights burst, and I shatter the mirror. The glass shard cuts into my hand like the blue rose. I do not understand."

"To whom am I speaking right now?" Sonya asked suspiciously.

"I do not know," Ma'el told her. "To whom do you think you are speaking?"

"I do not…know," Sonya found herself repeating.

There was a moment of tension as Sonya gazed deeply into the eyes of this foreign presence. It had her feeling unsettled, and she wondered if Ma'el had been like this for some time.

"I have passed a small portion of my gifts on to you," Ma'el told her, breaking the silence.

Sonya sighed with relief. This was the Ma'el she remembered.

"Then, this is what you meant," Sonya said. "This is what you meant when you said that I was to produce your legacy. What am I now Ma'el?"

"You are like me. Your body is coursing with psychic energy now. In time, your powers will become familiar to you. Thankfully, they are not nearly as strong as mine. You are the first of what will be my sleepers," Ma'el said. "You belong now to both the Taelons and the humans. You will pass on the powers I have bestowed upon you through your children."

"To what end?"

"You know what end, Sonya. You saw it when you looked into the gateway."

"But you just said—"

Ma'el silenced her by putting up his hand. "Now, I will diminish. I fear that my powers are already taking me. I will return to my ship, and I leave you and humanity to its fate. Good night, Sonya."

"But Ma'el! I have so many questions to ask you!" Sonya cried as he walked back into the tunnel.

"Good night, Sonya," he repeated, and then he said no more.

* * *

Ariel had been practicing her _Eunoia_ all day with her language tutor. Su'ki had given her a break as a reward for successfully reciting an old Taelon fable by heart. Ariel loved it when Su'ki gave her breaks because it gave her time to wander around the floor that belonged solely to the Espelons. She always met someone new or she found a new area to explore. She couldn't wait to tell Da'an of all the new things she had learned. It was her hope that Da'an would be proud when she got well.

She found a group of Espelons playing a game she had never seen before, and she wandered inside pretending not to notice. The Espelons did not notice her at all, and they continued playing, hurling verbal abuse in a dialect of Taelon Ariel could not understand. She edged closer and closer to their table, moving quietly like a mouse. She edged closer and closer until she was mere inches away from the merry-making group.

"We know you're there, kid," one of them said, causing her to jump. "You might as well sit with us."

"How did you know that I was here?" Ariel asked them innocently sitting in one of the Espelon female's laps.

"Nu'na here's a telepath," a male said pointing to an Espelon female across from them. "She told us that you were there. I'm surprised you couldn't understand us."

"I only know two dialects so far," Ariel said. "And I'm only good at one."

"Which ones?" Nu'na the telepath asked.

"_Puuta_ and _Eunoia_," Ariel answered. "I can speak _Puuta_ really well, but _Eunoia's_ hard."

"Well, I don't know if it's hard," one of the Espelon females said. "You just have to get the fact that there aren't any real rules of grammar when it comes to _Eunoia_. Then, it's pretty easy. You've gotta let yourself go in the language. You've gotta feel _Eunoia_."

"But it's still pretty good that you've got _Puuta_ down well," an Espelon female said. "Usually it doesn't matter what Taelon dialect it is. Outside species always have a hard time learning them. That must be the Taelon DNA in you. That was probably the only thing your real mother did right with you."

"Ja'da! Not in front of her!" Nu'na whispered harshly.

"I'm trying to get really good at _Eunoia_ so that ma'am will be proud of me when she gets better," Ariel said.

"Assuming she gets better," one of the Espelons whispered so low that Ariel could not hear it. Nu'na still elbowed him.

"By the way, what's with that whole 'ma'am' and 'sir' deal? I mean, why do you call them that?" Nu'na asked.

"Ma'am said that she didn't want me to forget about my mommy, so she told me to call her ma'am instead of mom. Sir came up with the 'solution.' Is that how you say it?"

"Yeah, that's right," a male Espelon said.

"Interesting," Nu'na said.

"Hey, do you know how to play this, kid?"

"No," Ariel said.

"Then, we'll teach you. New game everyone!"

There was a rush of groans and protests.

"Come on, everyone! New player, new game! We agreed on this."

"Can't she just play with one of us?"

"And give you an advantage over the rest of us. Nice try."

"Oh come on! Nu'na's a telepath. She already has a better advantage than the rest of us."

"And yet I'm a telekinetic and I'm still kicking her and your ass. No outside help! Now, give her some pieces and let's start a new game."

One of the Espelons rose to get another chair for Ariel. He brought a bio-slurry case that Ariel was sure was the Taelon version of a suitcase for her to use as a booster seat. Then, Nu'na waved her hand to start a new virtual board. The Espelon whose lap she had been sitting in gathered all the pieces put them in a black shuffling device. All the players were given twelve new pieces.

"Okay, Ariel. Humans have a game that's very similar to this called chess, but this is like chess for a bunch of people," Nu'na explained.

"What's chess?"

The Espelons all gasped.

"Nobody ever taught you how to play chess? Blasphemy!" Ja'da cried.

"Wait a second, now," Nu'na said. "Ariel, have you ever heard of Checkers or Chinese Checkers?"

"Oh yeah! I know them both. Ma'am and I play all the time," Ariel said excitedly. "But I only beat her once."

"There you go," Nu'na said waving her hand in triumph.

"Well, I guess it's okay if she know Checkers, but sometime they're gonna have to teach her chess. It's like _the_ game."

"Shut up, Ja'da. Okay, Ariel. It's good that you know Chinese Checkers because this game is more like that than like chess."

"All right," Ariel said. "I know _foo'vlasha_ if that helps."

"Oh!" the group of Espelons cried at once.

"So _that's_ why you never learned chess. Da'an bumped you right up to _foo'vlasha_ and cut out the middleman. Excellent," Ja'da said.

"Wow, you must be pretty good if you play _foo'vlasha_ with someone as skilled as Da'an. Word is that nobody's ever beaten her but Tay'jay. Not even Ma'el. But then, Tay'jay may have been lying about beating her. He has a tendency to do that."

"Well, then Ariel, you're pretty much set," Nu'na said. "This game is a lot like _foo'vlasha_. Think _foo'vlasha_ with a bunch of players. Think _foo'vlasha_ without the stupid connection lines."

"Oh! I get it. It's like Risk or Battleship," Ariel said.

"Exactly!" Nu'na said. "We'll make the first moves, and you watch and learn okay."

"All right," Ariel said cheerfully.

"Geez, I can't believe they taught her _foo'vlasha_, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Risk but not chess," one of the Espelons whispered.

"Shh! They may have been teaching it to her when Da'an…"

"Oh," the Espelon said in a long and apologetic sigh.

* * *

Liam had been so bored without Tay'jay to work with that he left the gym and just started wandering around the Espelon floor. Tay'jay had been hanging out with Ta'lay a lot lately. He had been meaning to ask Tay'jay what it was about her that attracted him to her when she was still a Taelon. Knowing Tay'jay, he probably wouldn't have answered his question. As much as Tay'jay liked to gloat, he didn't seem like the type to kiss and tell.

He had no idea why he kept coming here, especially since Da'an and Tay'jay weren't here. Nobody welcomed him here. They all called him the "Kimeran bastard." "The mistake of nature." "Wasted DNA" was another good one. He had never been stigmatized before now, and it had hurt him, especially after Sandoval died. He was self-sufficient enough to survive on his own, and yet with Sandoval dead and Da'an—

He felt like he had been dropped off on the doorstep of an orphanage as an infant. It amazed him how lowly and disadvantaged he felt when no one close to him was there for him. Augur and Street were working nonstop for Hubble's nonstop campaign to rally congressional support all over the country. Hubble, Thompson, and a bunch of government officials were touring the country speaking for candidates who supported the ANA and rallying as much support as they could. Street and Augur were Hubble's last-resort news feed when all other news feeds went out.

Tay'jay and Ta'lay, again, were hanging out together. Ever since that day Tay'jay went to check on her at the hospital, he had not left her side.

Mi'en was nowhere to be found. From what Augur had told him, she left the lair one day and never came back. He had spent about an hour or so asking Espelons and Taelons where she might be. The few Espelons and Taelons who didn't look at him like he was a leper told him they knew nothing.

Renee had bailed on him on a fall getaway with Joshua the first chance she got to answer him yes. She was probably living it up in Montana with her daily massages, her quality food around the clock, her horseback riding, and her frolicking with Joshua for a morning run around the prairie. Bastard! What did he have that Liam didn't? But then, Liam couldn't help but feel for Joshua. They had both lost their father, and their fathers hadn't been the best of parents to either of them. We all had our ways of dealing with the loss. Joshua's was to buy a ranch in Montana and flee to it like an oasis in the desert of dry corporate life. It wasn't Liam's choice, but at least Joshua was doing something about it. What was he doing?

And Link. Well Link was a braver man than he.

Liam had spent five minutes with Da'an and all he could was hold her until she fell unconscious, and Ta'lay and Dr. Curzon carried her to the hospital. He had felt completely helpless. He had lost all feeling and all ability to think with her in his arms. How pathetic and helpless they were.

And now he was wandering the floors of the ANA headquarters building alone. He realized that he had not been alone for a long time. There had always been someone there, someone like Renee or Da'an. He had always criticized the Taelons for their inability to be alone with their own thoughts. Now, he realized more than ever that he wanted someone with him. He hated being alone with his own thoughts, especially now. All he could think about was everything he'd done wrong. All he could do was go back and play it all over in his head: how he got here, how he had failed so many people, and how he was suffering the consequences. He knew he was supposed to learn something from all of this, but he wasn't sure exactly what that something was. So far the only thing he had learned was how to hide his shame, but he could never hide that shame from himself when he was alone.

He heard voices of laughter and rejoice coming from a nearby room, and he was instinctively drawn towards the happiness. He peered into the room.

Ariel was sitting with a group of six Espelons who were playing some alien game. Ariel was the one who was laughing, and they laughed with her as they taught her how to play.

"Sha'bra! Officer down! Officer down!" one of the Espelons cried when Ariel moved one of her pieces. Apparently she had done something crucial.

The other Espelons burst out laughing.

"You're a fast learner, kid," another Espelon said.

"Either that or Lok really sucks," another Espelon retorted.

"Shut up!"

Suddenly, the laughter and rejoice stopped.

"I feel you spying on us back there, wasted DNA," a cold feminine voice from the group said.

The Espelons' glares struck Liam like poison darts.

"My DNA can't be anymore wasted than the time you waste playing your alien games," Liam shot back, the only response he could think of.

"You seem to be showing a lot of interest in such a wasteful game," the female retorted. "What are you doing here?"

"It's nothing. I'm leaving," Liam said grimly, turning to leave the room.

"Hey, wait!" a shrill youthful voice cried.

Liam turned around. Ariel had left her seat and was following him. "What is it, kid?"

"You'd better be careful, Ariel," one of the Espelons warned. "He'll drive you crazy just like he drove Da'an."

"I had nothing to do with that, and you know it!" Liam yelled.

"Sometimes, I wonder."

"You certainly didn't help the situation," another Espelon said.

"What do you people have against me?" Liam asked. "I have done nothing to you. The humans have done nothing to you."

"Oh yeah? Tell that to your boss, Hubble Urick," the female said. "We feel his perverted thoughts every day he passes by these quarters. He darts looks at us like we don't belong, like he's just waiting for us to screw up. He doesn't trust Da'an, he doesn't trust Tay'jay, and he has no appreciation for all they've done for him."

"I'm not Hubble Urick."

The female Espelon rose from her seat. "That's right. You're not. You're just a little Kimera bastard who spends all his time complaining and no time doing anything about it. You sit there all high and mighty as if your species was a gift from the gods to us. You talk about the Taelons as if they had no right to slaughter every last one of you. You claim that humanity's so much better than the Taelons, as if humanity has never done anything wrong. If it weren't for the Taelons, this planet would be a lifeless dirtball. Your species raped the land, cutting down rainforests, hunting animals to extinction, polluting the air with your dirty fossil fuels, and the Taelons came in and cleaned up all your mess. They cured all the diseases that your politicians were too morally corrupt to address like HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. All this the Taelons did for you, and it's never enough."

"People shouldn't have to pay for those gifts with their lives!" Liam cried. "The point of all of that was to _save_ lives not take them away, but that's just what the Taelons did! They perform a few magic tricks, and then they backstab the very people they fooled. And who are you to defend the Taelons after all they've done to you?"

"Well all your criticism would be well and good if you didn't spend all your time taking them out of us!" the Espelon female shouted. "You take out all the horrible things the Taelons have done on everyone who had nothing to do it! You take it out on us, you take it out on Da'an, you take it out on the Taelons she recruited—you even take it out on your own friends! Instead of doing anything about those things, all you do is bitch, yell, and moan to the closest person you can find. You act like you're so much better than Hubble or Sandoval or Zo'or, but you're no different than them at all. You vent your frustrations by picking on the easiest targets. It's a lot easier to hurt Da'an's feelings than it is to hurt Zo'or's feelings. At least when you do it to Da'an, she won't do anything to you because, for some reason, she likes you! You're a coward, Kimera bastard! And this is one Espelon you and your racist resistance friends aren't gonna screw with!"

The Espelons all cheered for the courageous Espelon female.

"I…am not a racist," Liam said through his teeth. "I never…wanted to hurt Da'an."

"You're just a bully," the Espelon female taunted. "A cowardly bully. You're a bully just like all your friends. Like Jonathan Doors, like Hubble Urick, like Ronald Sandoval, like Siobhan Beckett, like Lili Marquette!"

"Stop it!"

"Lili Marquette forced Da'an to sacrifice herself for Ariel, and you did nothing to help her," the Espelon female cried.

"Nu'na, shut up," one of the Espelon females whispered. "Ariel's in here."

"I don't care! She needs to hear this!" Nu'na shot back. "I'll bet you even had a part in it, didn't you _Liam_? Lili probably told you all that there was no way to save Ariel other than draining Da'an's energy, and you probably pressured Da'an into agreeing. You were so panicky and so afraid for your _human_ friend's safety that you were willing to sacrifice the Taelon. Well what if Lili captured me, an Espelon? What if Lili captured an innocent Taelon mechanic or pilot like Mi'en? Huh? You gonna force them to drain their energy too?"

"No!" Liam yelled. "I-I wanted to help Da'an. I wanted to save her. I…I love her. But I loved Lili too. I wanted them both to live."

"Oh yeah?" an Espelon male asked unsympathetically. "Then, why'd you tell Da'an to forget those famous last words just because she told you about an experiment that the _Jaridians_, not she, conducted?"

"She told me that she used human women in experiments with the Jaridians!" Liam cried. "How was I supposed to feel?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about getting more information before jumping to conclusions, you daffy bastard!" Nu'na yelled. "Maybe Da'an meant that they worked with a human procreation clinic where women donate their eggs. Maybe she was talking about a stem cell experiment where they take cells from women's umbilical cords when their children are born. Maybe she was talking about some other Taelon's experiment that she had nothing to do with! But oh, you automatically assume that Da'an kidnapped innocent women from their homes and planted hybrid fetuses into their uterus. You do that because that's the kind of person you are. You assume the worst in everybody, even your own friends. You assume the worst in everybody so that you won't feel as bad if you fail them, if you hurt them, if you betray them. If there is any good reason why Da'an betrayed you—and I truly believe there's nothing she did to you that your haughty, self-indulgent ass didn't deserve—it was probably that _you_ didn't trust _her_."

Ariel was shivering, and so was Liam.

"Did mommy…Did she really hurt ma'am?" Ariel mumbled, trying to hold back her tears.

"If she had had the chance, your mother would've walked all over Da'an," Nu'na said cruelly. She darted her eyes back to Liam. "Just like you and your little human whore Renee."

"You leave her out of this, you bitch!" Liam cried.

"You humans are all the same," the Espelon male said harshly. "You're nothing but morally corrupt, lying, cheating, stealing leaches. You take without any plans of giving in return. All you would do is take from Da'an. You stole from her just like you steal from us. We put our lives on the line for your stupid ass operations, and all you give us in return is hate and distrust. Da'an lost her sanity for you—she nearly gave her life for your stupid species—and you've done nothing for her in return, or at least nothing you weren't paid to do. When was the last time you ever did a favor for Da'an? Why did she always have to put her reputation and her life on the line to help you and your worthless species? And the worst part about all of it is that you're actually _proud_ of all you've done, like you actually made any goddamn progress. You're _proud_ of your resistance, you're _proud_ of its founder Jonathan Doors, and you're _proud_ of Hubble Urick and the ANA."

"You don't understand," Liam said, facing Ariel more so than he was facing them. "I had witnessed lives ruined because of the Taelons. Friends of mine, who risked their lives and the lives of their families for the Resistance, were brutally slaughtered by the Taelons. My own mother died because the CVI the Taelons put in her brain killed her. I saw innocent families being torn apart as Taelons hauled them in for experimenting. I saw all the corruption of Zo'or and his Synod and the lives they were infecting—"

"And you took it out on the one Taelon with enough guts to help you do something about it," Nu'na finished for him.

"Da'an wasn't moving fast enough. The Commonality was holding her back. Her loyalty to Zo'or was holding her back. I was frustrated."

"If Da'an wasn't moving fast enough for you, then why in the galaxy didn't you move yourself?" Nu'na asked coldly. "Why didn't you go where she couldn't? If Da'an wasn't doing anything to help you, then you had no right to take it out on her. She could only do so much. You could do it all, what with you and your superior human brain and your Kimera magic powers. You had the power to change the world, but you were a coward. You were just as afraid of the consequences as Da'an used to be. And if Da'an was immobile and static during your fight against the Synod, then there should have been nothing holding you back. You have no excuse now. You've pushed yourself into a hole. You tried to help all those people and you failed, and you blamed your failure on Da'an. You have no one else to blame but yourself."

"Don't talk to me about failure and blame," Liam said sinisterly. "You weren't even there. You think you know everything just because you listen to a little bit of alien gossip, but you don't know anything. You don't know anything about me or about what happened to me with the Resistance. You don't understand the circumstances. You never had to see it all unravel before your eyes. So don't sit there and criticize me for things you know nothing about. I don't have to listen to you or explain myself to any of you!"

"But you do have to explain yourself to me," Ariel said firmly.

Liam felt his heart skip a beat. Then, that sinking feeling came. "Ariel, none of this had anything to do with you."

"You never liked ma'am," Ariel scorned that suddenly reminded Liam of Zo'or's ruthless voice or Da'an's low chastising tone. "Nu'na's right. You are a racist. Su'ki warned me about people like you. You hate the Taelons and the Espelons. You think everything wrong with the world today is the Taelons' fault. And mommy was just like you. I wish I had never been mommy's child. I hate her, I hate daddy, and I hate you. You and mommy hated ma'am, and the only reason mommy gave me to ma'am is because she felt sorry for herself. But you're even worse than mommy because ma'am loves you. She loves you more than she loves me, but you don't love her! You hurt her feelings, you tell her she doesn't mean anything, and you don't even think she's going to be okay now! I love ma'am more than you, but you don't even care! You don't even care!"

"Ariel, wait," Liam pleaded, trying to stop her from darting out of the room so that he could explain to her.

"Let me go! Leave me alone!" Ariel cried with tears in her eyes.

"Ariel, let me talk to you, please," Liam begged. "It's not like that. It was never like that."

"Leave me alone!" Ariel yelled, kicking his knee trying to make him release her shoulders. But Liam was too strong.

Suddenly an invisible wave of energy knocked the breath right out of Liam and sent him plummeting to the floor. Ariel, who had pried herself free before he hit the floor, ran out of the room as fast as she could. The male Espelon who had sided with Nu'na loomed over him.

"You touch that girl like that one more time, and I'll do what Da'an and Link never could do and rip your heart out with my bare hands," he threatened sinisterly.

Liam forced himself to his feet and found himself just inches away from the Espelon's face.

"Ba'du," Nu'na said just as sinisterly. "I think Major Kincaid's grossly worn out his welcome."

Ba'du joined Nu'na and the rest of the group.

"Now get out of the Espelon quarters and out of my sight," Nu'na said. "Don't ever let me even hear about you setting foot in these halls again."

Liam wanted so badly to attack her and wring her neck, but he somehow reserved what little dignity he had left and stormed out of the room and out of the Taelon/Espelon halls forever.

* * *

In all his years, Rembrandt could safely say that he had never had a single migraine. Even when he fell ill, he never had a migraine. Even when he had hangovers, he never had a migraine. He tended to have stomach problems, but never these jackpounding migraines all his friends warned him about. Migraines just didn't happen to him. But it was happening to him now. His head was in so much pain that the sound of his own footsteps was like torture to him. When he returned for Ariel, his head still hurt terribly. He wondered if this was some side effect that Ma'el had not bothered to warn him about due to their argument. Maybe it was just a side effect of the severe emotional drain he kept enduring. Whatever the cause, Rembrandt barely had the strength to speak to Ariel. She was the one who had to guide him back to his loft. He could tell that she was angry about something, and he wanted so badly to speak with her about it. However, he simply did not have the strength.

When he opened the door for her, Ariel ran straight into the bedroom. His migraine had heightened his sense of hearing, and he could hear her crying into the pillow. He quietly shut the door and went straight to the medicine cabinet to at the least alleviate the pain. Ariel needed him to talk with her, and no migraine in the world was going to keep him from comforting her. He didn't understand this instinctual mandate he had forced upon himself, but he was ready to follow it. He swallowed some ibuprofen without water and walked into the bedroom.

"What's the matter, sprout?"

"I hate them," Ariel said muffled by the pillow.

"Hate who, sprout?"

"It's not fair! She should have known better. It was Earth. She couldn't handle it, but she came anyway. It's her fault, and it's his fault too!"

"All whose fault?"

"Mommy's! And Liam's!"

"Oh God," Rembrandt mumbled, praying that medicine would take effect soon. "From that little rant, I'm guessing somebody told you about how you were born."

"Why didn't she just wait for me to be born?" Ariel sobbed. "Why did she force ma'am to give her life. Why didn't he protect her? He was supposed to protect her and he didn't?"

"Aw, Ariel," Rembrandt said picking her up and drying her eyes with the sleeves of his jacket. "It's not your fault, and it's not your mother's fault either."

"Yes, it is!"

"Ariel, pay good attention to me, okay?" Rembrandt said softly but firmly.

Ariel nodded and tried her best to hold back her tears.

"As much as we all would like to blame someone for the circumstances of your birth, we can't. It's nobody's fault. It's not your mother's, not Liam's, not Da'an's, and it's not your father's fault either. When Da'an first told me about what happened, I was ready to believe that it was definitely your mother's fault. She was very pregnant with you, she couldn't survive on Earth because her DNA was altered, and she knew that. But after she died, and she gave you to us, I started thinking a lot about it. I don't think Lili ever intended to actually set foot on Earth. I think that the Jaridian's sole purpose for coming was for peace. They just wanted to negotiate with the Synod on the Mothership, and I think that Lili was just the pilot. She was the only one on the Jaridian planet who knew how to fly a Taelon shuttle, and the Taelon shuttle is the only ship those Jaridians had at their disposal to fly through interdimensional space. I think Lili's mission was to pilot that ship, and it was altered when the Taelons fired at them and marooned her on Earth."

"But why didn't she just wait for me to be born and go after? And if she was on Earth, why didn't she just ask ma'am to help her? Why did she force her?"

"Well, Ariel, people do some very stupid things when they're in love. I believe Lili loved your father, and your father simply didn't want to wait. As for forcing her, Lili was so sick by the time Da'an got involved that I don't think she had any control over that."

"Then, Liam should've protected ma'am. He was supposed to, but he didn't."

"Helping Lili give birth to you was something that everybody wanted to do, but there was nobody who could do it but Da'an. And regardless of whether or not Da'an _wanted_ to give away her energy for you, that was probably one of the best decisions she ever made."

"But she could've died," Ariel said.

"But she didn't. Your mother didn't. They got you off of Earth, and Da'an was taken safely back to the embassy."

"Liam didn't want to. He still hated her. He wouldn't tell her he cared for her when he thought she was dead."

"Now, that's just not true," Rembrandt said. "I'm telling you Ariel, people do some very stupid things for love and for hate. Liam has done some very stupid things for being angry. He has _said_ some very stupid things—things that I'm sure he never would have said if he was in his right of mind. Now, I can't tell you what happened between him and Da'an after you were born. I wasn't there. But whatever happened, it's over now. He doesn't hate Da'an, and I don't think he ever did. It's just like how your mother and Da'an were before she died. Da'an hated your mother. She still hadn't forgiven Lili for this whole thing with your birth. Even when Lili died, and she and Lili reconciled, I think a small part of her still hated Lili for everything. But you changed all of that, Ariel. I think the more time Da'an spends with you, the more she has it in her heart to forgive Lili. And that's why I think that looking back on it now Da'an's decision to give her energy away to you was probably the best decisions she ever made. It led her to you. It led _us_ to you. We never would have gotten to realize just what a great child you are if she hadn't done that. I have to at least respect Lili for giving birth to someone as special as you."

"But ma'am's sick now, and she said she's still mad at me."

"What did I just tell you about people saying stupid things when they're angry? Not even ma'am's invulnerable to it. I'm not invulnerable to it. Nobody's invulnerable to it. I'll bet now that you're thinking about all that I'm saying to you, you aren't so angry with Liam anymore. I'll bet you don't hate him as much as you did before I talked to you, right?"

"Well…"

Rembrandt gave her the puppy dog look, and Ariel giggled.

"No, I guess not as much," Ariel said, forging a smile.

Rembrandt could feel his migraine starting to subside, which was good because he was getting tired of feeling like someone was taking a hammer to his head every time a word came out of his mouth. "There you go. Ariel, there's not a person that walks this planet right now that isn't flawed. There's not one person in this entire universe that hasn't made at least one mistake. We all make mistakes. What makes us individuals is the degree to which we learn from our own mistakes and the degree to which we learn to forgive our friends and family for their mistakes. Now, you can be this embittered individual who criticizes everyone for their mistakes, makes them hate themselves, and refuses to acknowledge his own mistakes. You can be that person, but…I can promise you that you will hate yourself for the rest of your life. You'll hate yourself as much as you hate others. But if you can learn from your mistakes, and forgive others for their mistakes, you're going to learn just how wonderful people can be. People are a lot more compassionate when you have a little faith in them. You can go a lot further if you have a little faith in yourself. And the world can be a much better place if you have faith that it can work."

"So I should have faith in ma'am and Liam and everyone else?"

"It makes it a lot easier to bear seeing that person every day if you have faith in them. And I know that ma'am and I have a lot of faith in you."

"You do?"

"Heck, yeah."

"I guess I can have just a little bit of faith," Ariel said.

"Hey, why don't you talk to Liam?" Rembrandt suggested. "Just talk to him and get his side of the story. If it doesn't float, then just walk away. After all, just because you have faith in someone doesn't mean you have to like him."

"But it's easier to have faith in someone if you do, right?"

"I never said that having faith in people was easy," Rembrandt said. "It can make your life just a little bit better, but it takes some effort to get to that level. If it was easy to have faith in people, everyone would do it."

"Well, I have faith in ma'am, and I have faith in you."

"It's a start in the right direction."

"But I don't know if I can like Liam."

"Ariel, Da'an don't surround herself with people she doesn't have faith in. If she didn't think that Liam was at least capable of redeeming himself for his mistakes, she wouldn't be anywhere near him."

"Well, if ma'am has faith in him…I guess I can too."

"Just talk to him. Give him a shot. Maybe after that you'll see what ma'am sees in him."

"Okay. I will," Ariel said.

"That's my girl," Rembrandt said hugging her. "Hey, since we're both starting to feel a little bit better, how about I make some popcorn and we'll watch a couple of movies together? Just me and you?"

"All right," Ariel said with a huge smile. "But I get to pick the movies."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

Ta'lay had returned from the hospital for the first time in a long time. It felt good to breathe the fresh air of her office at the ANA headquarters and to see all the Espelons she had made friends with. She even sat in her chair and spun in it a couple of times. Maybe Tay'jay was right. Maybe all of this was temporary and Da'an was going to be fine. Da'an was not such a bad person to believe in after all. If it had to be someone, Ta'lay was glad it was she.

Suddenly a slightly opened door caught Ta'lay's eye. It was the doorway to the lab. She couldn't remember if she had locked it before she left. Maybe some other scientist or doctor had been in there and had simply forgotten to lock it. Either way, Ta'lay rose casually and went to close and lock it. That was when she saw Mi'en lying on one of the tables with her hand on her forehead. She appeared to be in an unconscious state. Ta'lay crept inside quietly and whispered Mi'en's name.

Mi'en had not been asleep in any way, shape or form. And she had heard the sounds of someone inside the room next door long ago. She was simply hoping whomever it was would not find her or would at least think she was sleeping and leave. Mi'en darted in the direction of the whisperer ready to give him or her a piece of her mind. Those ill thoughts left her mind when she saw that it was Ta'lay.

"Ta'lay. What are you doing back? Has…Has Da'an recovered?" Mi'en asked, rising quickly.

"No. She's still confined. Tay'jay merely convinced me to step out for a few nights or so," Ta'lay explained. "Why are you here?"

"I was…trying to get away from it all, I suppose," Mi'en said in a drained and disillusioned voice.

"Away from what?"

"The gossip," Mi'en said. "Everybody. They all talk about nothing but Da'an, Zo'or, Sandoval, the Synod, and T'than. I couldn't take it anymore. I thought that since you stayed in that hospital nonstop that this place would be pretty quiet. Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Ta'lay said, approaching Mi'en and sitting next to her.

"Are we really leaving if Da'an doesn't recover?"

"I honestly do not know. I thought I did. I thought it was settled, but…I just do not know."

"Do you believe that Da'an will recover?"

"Um…maybe I do…a little more than I did before."

"This should never have happened to her," Mi'en said solemnly. "She doesn't deserve this. But I suppose it's not really her that I'm worried about. I think Tay'jay is right. I think she'll be fine. I really do. I just…feel terrible about how it all came to this in the first place."

"I know that you and T'than exchanged words before he died," Ta'lay said.

"Yes we did, and after what happened, I honestly do not know how to feel about that. Should I despise T'than as I always did, or should I pity him? He was my sibling. I know now because of Da'an that the priests changed him, but…now that I know, I have been replaying our entire past over and over again inside my mind…trying to differentiate between when he was this agent for the priests and when he was my sibling. Long ago I would have said he was never my sibling, but now that has changed."

"Why now?"

"Something he did…just before Sandoval killed him. Something I did."

"What did you do?" Ta'lay pressed.

"Sandoval forced us into a storage closet, and then he slit T'than's throat with an energy knife. He collapsed to his knees, and I…I lost control of myself. I saw how T'than was looking at me. Never did he seem more like my family than he did those mere seconds before he died. I saw how he reached for me, and I found myself begging Sandoval to have mercy on T'than. Then, Sandoval killed him, and I collapsed. I collapsed out of pure sympathy, sympathy I am not sure I should have had for him."

"Do you love him, Mi'en?" Ta'lay asked.

"No," Mi'en scoffed. "Of course not. I am a Taelon. I just…I feel so sorry for him. I pity him so, and I feel terrible about myself for doing so after all he has said and done to me."

"Mi'en," Ta'lay started, "I rely solely on facts to help me make any kind of opinion. However, these past few months I have spent here have changed my point of view. There are many things that I have done and that have happened to me that are quite illogical. Even when I joined the resistance with Da'an, I did not understand why I was doing it. But now that I have had ample time to think about it all, I realize that I joined because…I felt like what I was doing was the right thing. I felt that I could live with myself and all that I stand for here, helping my fellow Taelons and helping Espelons. I felt that Da'an had shown me something remarkable. She had shown me just how corrupt and flawed our leaders could be, and she showed me a way that I could help fix that problem. I could never do that as a Taelon _lu'yoi_ stuck on the Mothership making Synod members feel better for the rest of my life. It is a prestigious position, but an unsatisfying one. I cannot tell you whether or not T'than deserves to be mourned. All he has done suggests to me that he should not be. However, I did not know T'than as you knew him. I never had the opportunity to see him at his most vulnerable. You did, and you pitied him for it. That is not an easy thing to do for someone, especially someone like him. However, you should not torture yourself for showing just a slight bit of affection for him."

"Are you suggesting to me that my pitying T'than was right?"

"It was the closest thing to right that you will ever get. All creatures should be mourned before they die. Even Da'an mourned Zo'or when he died. T'than at the least deserves better than Zo'or, not so?"

"I…suppose he does."

"Then, you did the right thing sympathizing him, Mi'en," Ta'lay said. "Be satisfied with it. Tell me this, Mi'en. Twenty or thirty years in the future, you will reflect on this incident. When you do, will you hate yourself for showing weakness and pitying your brother? Or will you respect yourself for showing him just a little bit of mercy, the kind of mercy he could never show you, the kind of mercy his killer could never show him?"

"I should be satisfied with that, but it's not enough," Mi'en said blushing blue. "It simply is not enough for me."

"Not now, it is not. The pain from that moment is still fresh. Give it time to heal. At the least, give it time to heal. That way, when you do, your mind will be clear enough for you to answer that question for yourself."

"Like you did?"

"Yes, like I did," Ta'lay said. "For what it is worth, reflecting on my decision now, I cannot see myself choosing anything else. I cannot see myself any place but here."

Mi'en nodded comprehensively. "Would you mind spending some time with me for a few days? I do not wish to be alone, but I do not want to be with anyone else right now."

"No problem," Ta'lay said. "Nothing clears the mind better than hard labor. You can help me catch up on all the work I have missed. Plus this lab has needed rearrangement for quite some time."

Mi'en chuckled calmly. "Whatever you say, Ta'lay."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Come to the Grace of Heaven's Eternal Fantasy

"Ma'el, let me help you."

"Get out!"

"Stay away from me! Who is she? She is one of them!"

"Ma'el, I am Sonya. I am your friend. Let me help you."

"You cannot help me. No one can help me."

"Ma'el. I can help you. Just give me the chance."

"Get out!"

_I understand now. I understand everything. I know why you were in so much pain and why you lost your mind._

I see a brilliant flash of light before I fade into nothing.

"Paul, kill me. Please kill me. I cannot stand this any longer. I cannot bear it."

"No, Paul! Do not listen to him! Do not do it!"

"You must!"

"Do not even ask it of us, Ma'el! How dare you ask this of us? He will not do it! Will you Paul? Paul! Answer me!"

"If you feel anything for me, you will end my suffering and kill me! There is nothing for me here now, nothing but a slow, indignant death."

"Do not listen to him, Paul. You have us, Ma'el."

"You cannot see me like this. You do not want to see me like this. Nothing can save me now. Whether I die now later—what does it matter? I am doomed. You know this."

"Paul. Stop looking at him like that. Do not listen to him. You cannot want this!"

"Paul, you know what you must do."

"Yes…I do."

"Then, give me a painless death. Give me what no one else can give me Paul. You are the only one who can. Only you know what to give me. Please. Let me go, Paul. Let me go. Do to me what no human can do, and free me. Release me."

_You can't stay here in this fantasy. I realize that the fantasies are always much better than the reality. That's why we hide in them so._

Pain. I am in terrible pain. Every bit of moment brings terrible pain. I can barely breathe. My leg burns, and my eyes are watering. I am crying. Someone is holding me.

"Hold my hand. Just close your eyes and let the eternal sleep take you. You will never feel a thing. It will be like embracing a dream."

"Paul…do not grieve for me. You may…honor my death…by finishing my work. Then…you will be free as well. Love her, Paul. Honor her. Be faithful to her. Give her the love and happiness she deserves. Embrace it…and accept it. That is all love is, Paul…in all its forms. An eternal fantasy. Only you…can bring it to life."

"I will. I promise."

"See…Have faith…"

_I want to show you that reality isn't so bad because I'm going to bring love into it. I'm going to make love real for you. I wish I could give you anything else, but that's all I have to offer._

"I promise you that I will never leave you again."

"If only there was something that we could have done. If only we could have saved him. How do we go on? How do we return to the world we rejected so long ago?"

"It was not so long ago, Sonya. But we will manage. It is in our nature to manage. In a way, Ma'el has freed us. He has given us the ability to follow our own path. Let us walk together, Sonya."

"Paul, I cannot. Not now."

"We were asked not to grieve. Ma'el's death is not a death. It is a journey into a new and better world. He will always be with us."

This is the final entry of Ma'el's diary. I have left this entry for Ma'el's twin sister, Da'an.

_You should be free._

Before Ma'el died at my hands, he told me of the madness you would have to endure just to learn to control this brilliant power you have. Sonya and I were given a glimpse of that madness through the power of the gateway. No one else will understand this but you. I understand now what separates Ma'el from other prophets. Ma'el did not see the future. He felt it. He heard it. At times, he immersed himself in it. He lived in the future. He lived in past, present, and future all at once. This is what drove him mad. This is what killed him. Ma'el spent all his life driven by a force he could not understand, and all the wisdom he could leave you with is this: There are some things that were meant to happen. Fate does not allow us to change the future, as the Taelons often believe. Fate allows us control of the circumstances that bring about the future it has set for us. This is the ultimate wisdom of the divine. Now, Ma'el leaves this wisdom in your hands. I believe you are capable of handling it. You are free, and you are strong.

* * *

"You ran from me rather quickly after that incident. I thought you were merely stepping out for some air," Ma'el said when Rembrandt walked back into the room the next morning.

"I guess I needed some time to think after that. I didn't see the need to come back inside," Rembrandt said.

"Then, I take it you are feeling better?"

"Better, yeah. But not good."

"I see," Ma'el said. "Then, what would you like to know today?"

"I wanna know about the day Da'an left you and the day you decided to come to Earth," Rembrandt said determinedly. "I wanna know why it happened the way it did between you and why she's so special to you."

"You have asked of me quite a mouthful, Brigadier General," Ma'el said. "Where would you like to start?"

Rembrandt stopped suddenly. He had thought that Ma'el would show some resistance about reflecting on such allegedly emotional times. Why was he not the least bit hesitant about telling Rembrandt about those feelings and those times?

"You appear surprised about something."

"I just…thought you'd be a little resistant towards giving me, a total stranger, information like that."

"That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. You are not a _total_ stranger, Brigadier General. You are the man who wants my sister. I believe that relates us in some form, not so?"

"I guess it does."

"In that case, where would you like me to start?"

Rembrandt sighed. Something about Ma'el pouring his heart and soul out to him frightened him. He did not know why, but he guessed it was because of that incident yesterday. However, he had brought them to this road. It was his responsibility to follow through and take it. "Start with the day the priests took Da'an. The day she changed and disregarded you as family."

"I will interpret from that that you want me to start on the day Da'an turned sixteen." Ma'el said in a condescending tone towards Rembrandt's uncertainty.

"Yes."

"Very well." Ma'el had been lying in the bed the whole time Rembrandt had been speaking to him. Now, he was sitting up and facing Rembrandt. "On the day my sister turned sixteen, she was taken by Ka'li to the priests as was expected of her."

"Had she been going to the priests before then?"

"No, the high priest had been coming to her."

"Really? What was that about?"

"When Taelons complete their second growth spurt, they are taken to the caste minister. The caste minister evaluates every individual Taelon and decides what caste that Taelon will assume. Ever since the incident with Bel'lie, the priests had been watching Da'an. They had been watching both Da'an and me closely. During our visit to the caste minister, the high priest made a personal evaluation of the both of us. It is an honor bestowed upon very few Taelons. From there, the high priest had the Priestess of Knowledge evaluate us as well. That was the day I met Nye."

"Nye? She's the Priestess of Knowledge?"

"She used to be."

"So what's this got to do with Da'an?"

"Not so much Da'an as it does with me. I let Nye enter my mind. She became so terrified that she fled the room and the caste minister refused to evaluate the both of us. The high priest had to personally choose our castes. This information was never shared with Ka'li. He did not understand just how deeply the high priest had sunk his fingers into my sister until it was too late. Because of the incident, the high priest wanted nothing to do with me, so he forced upon me the role of scientist. Da'an was made a diplomat, and the high priest highly recommended that Da'an be allowed to enter the school for diplomats of potential Synod status. He did so on the condition that his priests mentor Da'an at the end of each Taelon year. Until the day that she turned sixteen."

"So that was how he watched Da'an. He asked to be able to mentor her. Did he discover her power when you two visited the caste minister?"

"No. He discovered it when she turned sixteen. The mentorship was meant purely for observation and nothing else. Da'an and I kept our abilities secret from everyone except Tay'jay." Ma'el's eyes closed for a moment. When they opened, Rembrandt found a look of despair. He could not believe he could find any emotions in those white marble eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"I cannot tell you how many times I nearly lost all control. Whenever I did, she would come to me and hold me. She was the one who would purify me. She silenced the voices when I could not."

"That must've been how you figured it out. Nobody can cleanse a person except for the high priest."

"Precisely. In return for what she did, I taught her how to control her telekinetic abilities. Of course my lessons were for naught when the high priest erased her memory. Because of him, I could never repay her. She saved my life more times that you will ever know, and all I could give her in return was the very curse that plagued me. The very curse that killed me. Do you understand now? Do you understand why I died mourning her?"

"I do. You must've really loved her."

"More than you will ever know."

Rembrandt sighed in pity. "Get back to the day she turned sixteen."

"The high priest was determined to have Da'an as his apprentice. When Taelons turn sixteen, they are considered full adults. This means they are able to handle the mental burden of the Commonality. Therefore, they are taken to the priests, who purify their minds, bodies, and spirits and intensify their connection to the Commonality. The Taelon becomes the spiritual property of the mass that is the Commonality. He becomes one with his brethren. When Ka'li brought Da'an to the priests for this ritual, the high priest ordered her to become a part of the priesthood. Ka'li was against it. He knew that they would use the year that they were designated with Da'an to turn her against Ka'li. However, it was the high priest's best chance to secure his legacy, and Da'an had vehemently agreed to it."

"Why would she agree to something like that?"

"It is the highest honor that may be bestowed upon a Taelon. Would you have turned them down?"

"No. I guess not."

"When Da'an was taken to the priests, Nye attempted, with the high priest's aid, to give Da'an to the Commonality. In the process, an instinctual self-defense mechanism triggered, and Da'an began absorbing Nye's powers. Nye and the high priest were forced to let go. That was how the high priest learned of her ability to purify."

"She purified the powers she stole from Nye," Rembrandt finished.

"The high priest immediately ordered that Da'an be taken to the temple of the priests. She was to become one of them, a priestess."

"Then, if Da'an was supposed to be a priestess, why isn't she one now?"

"In a moment, Brigadier General."

"Okay then. How did you find out about all of this?"

"Nye told me the entire story after she left the priesthood."

"You two worked pretty closely together, didn't you?"

"We did."

"So what happened to you when you went to the priests?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Ma'el left the bed and sat on the floor with his legs stretched out. He was stretching again. "It means exactly what it is meant to mean. The priests could not convert me even if they tried. Nye attempted to get inside my mind and draw me to the Commonality, and I fought back."

"I see."

"At the time it was unintentional. It was an instinctual defense. I accidentally revealed to her everything that I had foreseen of the Taelon race, including the destruction of our home world. Nye was so overwhelmed that she fainted. That has never happened to a priest before. The high priest turned me away and told me never to return. He feared that any attempt to cleanse me would have drawn him into my maelstrom."

"Did the other Taelons find out about that?"

"No. After Nye recovered, she convinced the other priests to keep it secret. If they revealed that they could not convert a Taelon, not only would it make me a threat, it would make them appear weak as well. The priests could not risk that image, especially in front of their newest pupil. Da'an would have become disillusioned with the priesthood, and she would have turned out like me. I believe that was what Nye told them."

"Nye's a very manipulative woman, isn't she?"

"Only towards people she does not trust. It is a rare and beautiful thing when a stranger gets the whole truth from Nye."

"So she's a liar?"

"I did not say that. I said she has a problem with revealing the whole truth. She reveals her version of it."

"There aren't any versions of the truth."

"That is the kind of talk I would expect from a young fool like Major Kincaid, not a respected war hero such as you, especially one who carries a double identity. Are you not telling people your version of the truth every time they so much as ask for your name?"

"Touché. So Da'an was taken to the priests, and she was supposed to become a priestess. What happened with that?"

"From what Nye told me, the high priest had a change of heart."

"What kind of change?"

"She would not tell me that."

"You're lying."

"Of course I am. However, the reason should be obvious even to you."

Rembrandt shook his head at Ma'el, who was performing all kinds of strange contortions. He could not understand how any Taelon could have a casual conversation in any one of the positions Ma'el was making. He found it funny. "So what happened to you in all of this?"

"I returned to my position as a scientist. I became a planetologist, and I spent over a thousand years learning about several species. Occasionally, I would see my sister, but it was nothing more than a passing glance. I watched her rise through the ranks of diplomacy from a distance. When Ka'li appointed Da'an as a Synod member, I had to hear of it through the echoes of the Commonality. I could not even attend the celebration. I was on a distant Taelon colony investigating the outbreak of a virus called _Pesh'tal_, a virus that corrupts Taelon neurons. Apparently, there was an outbreak on this planet, but Major Kincaid was able to detain the threat."

"Is that what was going on when Zo'or went missing and they allegedly found him in a crazy place?"

"You mean a place like this?" Ma'el said in a taunting voice. His legs lay over his back, arms and head as if someone had folded him in half. Yet his head rested comfortably on his arms.

Rembrandt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, a place like this."

"Then, the answer to your question is yes. Zo'or caught _Pesh'tal_ from a sample I had with me on my ship. Apparently someone recovered it and felt the need to bring it to him. At least that is what Da'an remembers."

"So what were you doing with the sample all this time?"

"What can I say? I am a packrat."

Rembrandt snickered. "Seriously. What'd you have the virus for?"

"I was ordered to take it by a Synod member named Quo'on. Apparently, he and Taelon scientists back on our home world had the hopes of turning it into a biological weapon against the Jaridians. After the virus killed everyone on the colony it had initially infected however, the project was abandoned, deemed too dangerous to continue further pursuit. I kept the virus for the same reasons I keep many of the dangerous chemicals that were stored in that ship. The ship was lightly armed, and in the event of invasion, I needed some sort of defensive weapon."

"You know, I believe terrorists tend to make the same arguments for all the weapons they store."

"Do I look like a terrorist to you?"

"Well not in that position you don't," Rembrandt said, pointing at Ma'el, who still had his legs over his head.

Ma'el smirked.

"So what about TJ? Where was he in all of this?"

"Who?"

"Tay'jay. Your half brother."

"Oh. The entire family of one who is taken by the priests is notified of the situation. Tay'jay accepted it with a grudge. He never forgave himself for what happened to her. He operated under some assumption that if he had been there, he could have stopped her. I simply accepted her fate and left. Unlike him, I understood that neither of us could have stopped her. It is strange how three siblings bonded so closely at youth can mature into adults and never see one another again. However, that is the fate that befell the three of us."

"So what made you decide to go to Earth when the Taelon-Jaridian War started?"

"I was ordered to by the new Synod, the one led by Quo'on. Our species had mastered time travel long before then. The mission was to search for a distant primitive world compatible with our physiology. We would time travel and study the peoples. You call the philosophy 'knowing you foe.' We wanted to see what makes you tick. We wanted to know you so that we could conquer you."

"You must have been very proud to accept that mission," Rembrandt said sarcastically.

"Grudgingly proud," Ma'el retorted. "Nye came to me just before I left, as I knew she would. The visions I had shown her had finally come into fruition. I found it ironic that the high priest did not wait until a thousand years after Nye had left to inform the Taelon public of her demise. He must have been waiting for the right opportunity. He told everyone that she had been killed when the planet was destroyed. They called her a martyr because she decided to stay and sacrifice herself for the sins of the ones who were left behind."

"The Taelons who became the Espelons, you mean."

"Precisely."

"Did anyone actually believe that story?"

"Most did until news of the little cult she started began to spread. The priests did their best to keep that information from the Synod in fear that word would get to Da'an. Returning to the subject at hand however, Nye came to me for guidance. She desired to help me in my plans to liberate my sister. I entrusted her with a series of visions that would give her the means to free Da'an from the Commonality."

"You must've known what would happen to the Taelons when they evolved and unified their genders, right?"

"Any idiot of a scientist could have figured it out. The Taelons altered their forms and evolved too quickly. The high priest moved too quickly, and the Taelons are suffering for his mistake. The worst part is that he refuses to call it a mistake. He calls it a natural cleansing, a method to separate the worthy from the impure. Nye and I are returning the Taelons to the evolutionary course that was set for them long before the high priest came to be—before the Kimera even—the course nature chose for us and not any purist or any curious species looking for a test rat."

"So the Espelons are the real Taelons then."

"The Espelons are the Taelons as they were meant to be. The Espelons that came to be after the high priest attempted to disconnect them from the Commonality are proof of that path. Nye promised me that she would research into this phenomenon. I told her that a time would come when Da'an was ready to take her place in this plan we had set in motion. She would have until that time to find a way to free us all. She succeeded."

"Then, she must've tried out the ritual on you, right?"

"No, that was Ha'gel," Ma'el said rolling his eyes.

"Ha'gel? Liam's father? He was the one who turned you into an Espelon?"

"I told you that Kimera have the ability to purify as well. He purified me. It was by mere chance that his prison pod landed on Earth, but when I found it, I forged a rather shaky alliance with him. I asked him to help me free myself from the Commonality, and I temporarily released him. He did to me what Da'an did to Ta'lay, and then he succumbed to a reproductive madness that ended with the deaths of several unfortunate human women. My protector and Salvius helped me put Ha'gel back in his place."

"No wonder your feelings about the Kimera are so complicated. You knew one."

"Regardless of my prejudices against him and his species, I owe much to Ha'gel. I would not refer to him as a friend, but our alliance was a crucial aid in the success of my plans."

"So you did all of this—coming to Earth, preparing the planet, working with Nye and Ha'gel, all of it—for Da'an?"

"It is my gift to her. It is the only gift I could give to her in return. She has a chance to change the world, Brigadier General."

"What if she doesn't want your plan? What if she just wants to be a normal person?"

"That is her decision. However, she would not have accepted my powers if she did not want this."

"She didn't accept those powers to change the world," Rembrandt said rising from his seat. "She did it for you. You talk about how sad and guilty you feel for having to give her your powers. Imagine how guilty she feels. She supported the priests, and they stole her memories. She left her entire family in the name of honor and duty for these priests, and in return all they did was use her and turn her into a puppet. She ignored you and Tay'jay for over a thousand for the very people who used her, the very people who nearly killed her in that ritual when she tried to free herself. She didn't accept your powers out of love for you. She did it for the same reason she went to the priests. She felt it was her duty. She felt guilty. She wanted to make what she did right."

Ma'el rocked himself until he was on his knees. "What do you want me to say, Brigadier General?"

"You don't have to say a thing. She got herself into all of this just because she felt guilty. It's just like the priests…and just like what she did with Zo'or. All she wanted to do was make things right with Zo'or and he nearly killed her. All she wanted to do was make things right with you, and she's here now."

"I appreciate the rant, Brigadier General, but I refuse to believe that my sister is that weak. I will never fully appreciate why she chose to protect Zo'or after all he had done to her, but I can safely tell you why she did it, and it was not out of guilt. It was out of maternal instinct to protect him, an instinct that was enhanced by my powers. She did it for love, Brigadier General. Just as she accepted my powers out of love. If she had come to me with guilt in her heart, she never would have made it through the gateway, or have you forgotten the ill fate that befell Agent Deladier?"

"It still doesn't make it right."

"No, it does not. However many things in life are not."

"I want her back, Ma'el. I want her with me. She should be telling me all of this, not you," Rembrandt said hanging his head low.

"We are not finished yet," Ma'el said. "Now, sit."

Rembrandt followed Ma'el's instructions and sat.

"It is now time for you to tell me everything I want to know about you."

Rembrandt swallowed silently. It was at that moment that a little voice inside his head confirmed that this had never been a simple exchange of information. Of course he had already known that, but he did not understand what this really was until now. He did not know whether Da'an had invented this, whether this was a manifestation of Ma'el's powers overtaking Da'an's consciousness, or whether this really was Ma'el he was talking to and he had orchestrated this. Whatever the circumstances, this was a rite of passage for Rembrandt. Someone was testing his integrity, his honesty, and, most of all, his worthiness. Was he good enough for her? Was he good enough for Da'an?

* * *

Joshua and Renee sat on a swinging bench outside the large cabin to watch the clear stars. If only her soul were as clear as that azure sky. As the days passed Renee found the tension in her body slowly fading away. Joshua had been correct. This place does grow on you. However, the tension was still not fading away fast enough. Renee was able to relieve herself of the cause of all her troubles, but not the symptom, so much so that whenever the symptoms presented themselves—even if they were less frequent—she would get this feeling as if she were a copy without an original. There was an emptiness that she just couldn't fill. It was a bitter side effect to the drug of this place. But at the end of the day, all she wanted to do was lay in the arms of someone close to her. This re-circulating emptiness with seemingly no origin had unleashed a vulnerability she had kept hidden ever since the death of her mother.

Joshua, as if he had read her mind, pulled her close to his chest and set down his cup of champagne so that he could take her hand.

"You know it can be just like this, Renee. This can be our…solitude. This could be our place that we could share together whenever we needed it."

"It's a beautiful place, Joshua."

Joshua gently lifted her head, forcing her to gaze into his eyes. There was nothing but seriousness there. Renee felt intimidated.

"If you ask it of me, Renee, I'm willing to give up all of my shares to the company to you."

Renee's heart leapt, but the rest of her body was in such shock that she couldn't display the reaction. "I don't understand," she said in a toneless voice.

"I've been thinking about it for a long time, Renee. I can't deal with it anymore. My father, the company—any of it. I can't even go back into law. Everything in DC just reminds me of my father, and I can't handle it anymore. He's a monkey that I can't handle anymore. I'm ripping him off my back once and for all. I've had it with him, and I'm selling the company. If you ask it of me, I'll give it to you. I really don't trust anyone else with it."

"So what are you going to do? Move out here and become a rancher?" Renee asked.

"Why not?" Joshua asked back. "After everything I've done before, why not? Why not spend the rest of my days in one of the few wide-open spaces left in America? Why not raise some cattle or horses or something?"

Renee sighed. "Joshua, it's a simpler kind of life so to speak, but…it…it just doesn't feel like you. It feels like you're just…giving up. That's not the person that I…"

Joshua placed his hand on her cheek. "That you what?"

"That I—I don't know."

Joshua hung his head low for a moment and took a sip of his champagne glass. Then, he turned to face her again. "Come with me."

"What?" Renee asked.

"Look, I know this seems really sudden, but…these few days I've spent with you have been the best days of my life. I've never really been able to sit down and think things over for a moment until now. And you know what I found out?"

"What Joshua?" Renee asked, feeling her heart's pulse increasing.

"We're good together, Renee. Every time we've worked together, we've always been great. Even in the worst of times, you've always been there for me. I can anticipate you and you can anticipate me. I want you, Renee." Joshua reached into his pocket for something. "You're all I've ever wanted in the world."

Renee was confused. The night breeze had been crisp and calming until now. Now the wind felt so cold that it was hot. It was burning her, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. Joshua pulled out a tiny velvet box, and then he opened it. A glorious three-stoned diamond ring stood inside like a proud mini-sculpture.

"Marry me, Renee," Joshua said softly, getting off the bench to bend down on one knee.

Renee had not cried for so long that she'd forgotten just how bittersweet it felt. The salty tears flowed down her cheeks like a busted pipe. She felt her face grow red and her nose swell. Dozens of memories came to her like a flash flood. Memories of Joshua when they first met during Doors' presidential campaign, memories of the time they spent together working against the Taelons, memories of that bittersweet time they spent together at One Taelon Avenue, memories of how close she had held him when Liam left the room after his father had died. Joshua was a good man, a powerful man. And now she was finally given the chance to be a part of that power, and yet—

"Oh God, Joshua, I can't."

That look of crushed hope on Joshua's face only worsened Renee's sobs.

"I'm…I'm so sorry," Renee sobbed. "I…I've envisioned this moment a thousand times in my head, and every time it's just like this. He takes me to some paradise. Sometimes…it's a tropical island, sometimes it's a mountain getaway, sometimes it's a vast green pasture just like this, and sometimes it's on a boat far out at sea. He…He talks to me about how wonderful life has been with me and how wonderful life will continue to be as long as we're together. He bends down on one knee and pulls out a ring, a ring just like this. He holds it up to me and he asks me, 'Renee, will you make me the happiest man in the world?'"

"Yeah?" Joshua asked, still clinging to the hope that she would reconsider.

"It's always been a dream—a-a fantasy…and now I have that, and…and I'm crying my eyes out—" Renee wept. "I'm crying like a baby…be-because…I'm wanting you to be somebody else."

Joshua winced and stood over her. "What is it? Is it this? Is it the company? Do-Do you want me to stay in the city?"

"Joshua, no," Renee said standing to be on equal footing with him, a concept she knew was not possible now no matter what she did. "It's not that—"

"Then what!" Joshua cried. "What is it?"

"I don't know. I just don't know," Renee stuttered. "Maybe it is all of that. Maybe it is this idea I've always had in my head about you. You're this young, articulate, ambitious and driven man. You're strong, and you're always on the side of justice to me. But lately…I mean this, all of this, it-it just seems like a big surrender. You're giving up. You're giving up on the rest of the world. This is a paradise. I'd love to spend the rest of my days out here. Maybe running the company from a home office here, leaving only to make special appearances or charity events, and…and having a few kids. But…But my world isn't like that. This world isn't like that. It's all just a dream. It's you running to a fantasy world that can never be, Joshua. If the Taelons have their way—"

"Oh, goddamn it, Renee," Joshua burst in frustration. "Why in the hell does it always have to be about the damn Taelons? I'm through with them! I'm through with those alien bastards, every last one of them! I tried to take it into my own hands to defeat them and they've always been one step ahead of me. Everyone's always been one step ahead of me! My father, my friends, the Taelons—everyone! Well, I've had it. They've ruined my life and I'm not going to sit here and put myself in a position to have it ruined any further. This is the only way I have left to take my life into my own hands."

Renee shuddered. "Then, I just can't do it this way. I can't be with you. Joshua, you're going to make someone very happy one day. You're going to make some woman the luckiest woman in the world, but…that woman can't be me. I just can't live like this. Even if it hurts me sometimes, even if it hurts me a lot, I…I just can't see myself any other place than where I am with…with…"

"With Liam?"

Renee smiled for the first time that whole night. "Yeah. With Liam."

Joshua sighed heavily. "You really…love him, don't you?"

Renee felt her tearful flow beginning to stop. "I do. I…really love him. And everything that goes with him. I think I can live with it now because…well now that I've been offered something else, the other thing that I've always wanted—a life like this, a life with you—I realize that I'm happier with him. As flawed as he is, I can't live without him anymore. I have to love him. There's just no other way."

Joshua turned sharply.

Renee wanted nothing else more than for this moment to end. Her entire body ached at how badly she was hurting Joshua. For her to realize that she had hurt him just like all the others in his life, that she was one of "those people," crushed a piece of her and with it what chance of a friendship she and Joshua had.

But when Joshua turned around once more to face her, a subtle clarity was in his eyes, as if some force beyond his age had possessed him, helping him realize that he loved her enough to let her go and be happy. "Then you shouldn't be here."

Renee felt a healing vibe wiggle its way inside of her.

"Go. Go!" Joshua said in a more excited tone than angry. "Go to him and be with him. I won't get in the way now. Go."

Renee shuddered with happiness. "Are you sure?"

"Go on. Get out of here," Joshua said. "Tell him how you feel. It's not right for you to be here if I can't make you happy. I won't be my father and force my love upon you like he did on me. Go."

Renee kissed his cheeks in thankfulness and rushed to find a driver that would bring her back to Washington. Washington, DC, her home, where she truly belonged.

* * *

"Nice work!" Tay'jay told Liam.

Liam, for the first time, had successfully managed to block Tay'jay from attacking him from behind. Tay'jay stopped to let Liam rest. They had been sparring for almost an hour now.

"You see? I knew you had some Pa'dar in you. You just gotta want it," Tay'jay said.

"I'm surprised you even let me train. I know what you and the rest of the Taelons think about human Pa'dar," Liam said.

"As a former Pa'dar warrior I can safely tell you that I do not agree with the Espelon and Taelon perception of human Pa'dar as sacrilege, for I do not even consider human Pa'dar actual Pa'dar."

Liam laughed. "So you just don't even associate the two?"

"Do you?" Tay'jay asked back.

"No," Liam chuckled. He sat down cross-legged facing Tay'jay who was also cross-legged on the mat with his staff behind his back. "Hey TJ. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"Do you think that I was too hard on Da'an?"

"Uh, I don't get it," Tay'jay said shrugging.

"Back when I was Da'an's companion protector and I led the Liberation Movement."

"Oh!" Tay'jay said with a groan in acknowledgement. "That sha'bra. Is it really my place to determine whether or not you were an ass to my sister? I mean it's not like I was even there."

"Some people would say that doesn't matter."

"Look, whoever you've been talking to, they're entitled to their opinion, but only you and Da'an were there. Only you and Da'an know what the circumstances really were, and in all honesty it's only yours and Da'an's opinion that should matter to you. I mean, does she think you were an ass to her?"

"I don't know what Da'an thinks," Liam said solemnly.

"Oh, I think ya do, Kincaid," Tay'jay said in a Scottish accent.

"Shut up. I'm serious," Liam said.

"Okay, let me put this in words you can understand," Tay'jay said. "In case you haven't yet noticed, Da'an has a strong tendency to voice her opinion. She also has a strong tendency to associate and dissociate herself from people rather quickly. I mean, look how quickly she dissociated herself from Urick. And yet after all the sha'bra you and she have been through, she hasn't dissociated herself from you. It's like what you were saying about your relationship with her. You two are close. Real close. And I don't think Da'an would allow herself to become that close to you if you had been an asshole to her, especially someone she's not even remotely related to. Da'an is drawn to you because she senses the good in you. She senses that nobility inside of you even if you can't always see it. Even after all you two have been through, she trusts you with her life. I mean, hell, at the eleventh hour when Nye took Da'an and asked her whether or not she wanted you to be at the ritual—the ritual that could've killed her—what did she tell Nye?"

Liam reached deep within his own mind to replay that moment, that memory when Da'an and Nye hard argued right after they had landed. _Try to have some faith in me. They do. _When those lost words hit Liam, he felt warmth begin to rise inside him. "She asked for me to be there."

"Exactly. People have their arguments. Friends have their fights. Hell, children fight with their own parents at times. And yet through all the bullshit we go through we somehow manage to stay together. I can't tell you how many times I fought with Ar'ron, and yet I still would take a shot in the heart for him to this day. I'd do it just to bring him back into this world for five minutes. Fighting's the predatory nature of the beast. We're bound to fight. What you have to do is wait until the fight is over and ask yourself, can I still stick with this person after that crap? Obviously the answer in Da'an's case is yes, or she wouldn't keep coming back to you. Now look at yourself. Do you reciprocate that feeling? Would you still take a shot in the heart for Da'an after all the bullshit you've been through together?"

"Of course I would."

"Then, what the hell is the problem!" Tay'jay exclaimed. "If that's how you feel, it shouldn't matter what happened in the past, and it definitely shouldn't matter what a couple of ignorant dumb-asses think. If you keep thinking about all the bad things you've done in the past, you're never gonna be happy. Bad things happen in the past so that we can learn from them in the present to make for better things in the future."

"Wow. Who told you that?"

"What? You don't think I could come up with that all by myself?"

"I didn't say that. I just—"

"I'm just screwin' with you," Tay'jay laughed. "Ma'el told me that."

Liam scoffed at himself. "I can't believe how stupid I've been. You know, lately I've felt like I'm in this bubble that I can't break out of. But now, I feel like I can get up and start over with myself and with my friends. Why in the hell couldn't I figure that out for myself? Why did it take you telling me that for me to finally understand?"

"It's all in the tone, man. I make it seem more obvious than it actually is. When we're stuck in a rut we have a tendency to ignore some of the most obvious solutions to our problems."

"Or we just dismiss such solutions as pure fantasy. I mean, in reality it can't be that easy."

"Fantasy and reality are what you make of them. That's all I'm gonna say about that," Tay'jay said standing up, signifying to Liam that he was through with this conversation.

"Liam," a soft voice called.

Liam turned to see Ariel standing just a few inches from the edge of the mat. "Hey, Ariel."

"Is it all right if you walk with me?" Ariel asked softly. Liam had to mouth the words himself just to make sure he had heard her right.

"Yeah. Of course. Just let me get changed. TJ?"

"Good luck, buddy," Tay'jay said patting his back.

* * *

Liam met Ariel back at the mat in some windbreaker pants and a white t-shirt. He couldn't believe just how nervous he was. She's not even a year old yet, he kept thinking to himself. Ariel extended her hand, and he felt his nervousness subside slightly. He took it and let her lead him outside the sparring room.

"So…you still mad at me?" Liam asked softly.

"Sir said that I should cut you some slack, so I'm gonna."

"Thanks, kid," Liam said, sighing with relief quietly.

Nothing was said between them as they left the building. It was in the afternoon, but the sky was so cloudy that it felt like it was twilight. Liam worried a little. He should've gone back in for his umbrella, but wherever Ariel was leading him, she was determined to get there. She pulled him along as if he were nothing to her but a pack mule. Her quick-paced movements made Liam realize that she was just as nervous as he was. He didn't feel like an adult at that moment. He felt like an older brother. He knew for a fact that Tay'jay had been correct. Ariel did see Liam as a rival for Da'an's affection.

It wasn't until they passed a hotdog stand that Liam liked to go to that he realized that they were headed for St. Michael's church. But why would Ariel want to talk with him at the lair? Didn't it seem just as easy to talk back at headquarters?

The thunderclap made Liam's heart jump for a moment. Ariel showed no fear of the weather at all. She was determined to make it there, so Liam quickened his pace with her to help her beat the oncoming storm.

They had been lucky. Just as they opened the large wooden door, the wind howled like a wolf and the rain followed in sheets of stinging, pelting droplets. It was as if God was hurling the rain down to Earth in buckets.

Ariel led Liam to one of the middle rows of the wooden church seats and sat with him. And they just sat.

Neither had any clue how to start the conversation—or argument more likely. So they just sat facing the plated glass carved to look like Mother Mary holding the Baby Jesus and the other that was carved to look like St. Michael. There was also a giant wooden cross in between the two glass windows and in front of them all was the small stage where the choir most likely sang for the morning mass.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Liam asked, taking the effort to dive in.

"Yeah," Ariel replied softly, still not facing him.

Liam could feel the nervousness resonating from Ariel's tiny little hand. She kept tapping her fingers on the wooden seat. The sound somehow reminded Liam of the footsteps Renee's heeled shoes made whenever they met at the Washington Embassy. For some reason, that helped him find the courage to confront Ariel.

"What happened between me and Da'an was very complicated, Ariel," he told her calmly. "I know it's hard to believe, especially since you weren't there. It all seems really simple looking back. Everything seems simpler when we look back on it. And despite the fact that certain people will often try to simplify what happened between us, you have to believe that it was more complicated than what they say. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I think so," Ariel said slowly. "Sir said kind of the same thing to me."

"Our relationship has always been complicated, Ariel," Liam continued. "I don't think it could be any other way now that I really look back on it. But Tay'jay told me something very important today. He told me that after all of the nonsense that Da'an and I have been through, that if I could still look at her and call her a friend, then that was all that mattered."

"But how?" Ariel asked. "How can you and ma'am just forget about everything that happened like that? You really hurt her feelings."

"I know, and it was hard. I still don't think I've totally gotten over it. But I love Da'an. I love her like she was my own mother."

"It's not fair. You two aren't even related, but she always leaves me. She always goes back to you."

"That's not true at all. Da'an keeps me in the dark about things all the time. She's still doing it even after all we've been through. She's driven by some instinctive desire to protect people. She can't help it. She doesn't like putting her burdens on others, but the more she holds back, that's exactly what she ends up doing. I think it has a lot to do with what happened between her and her family. Especially her and her parent, Bel'lie."

"What happened?"

"Well…" Liam did not want to discuss death with a child as young as Ariel. He was especially disheartened at the fact that he was the one who was about to tell her. This was a conversation that should be reserved for Link or Da'an, someone who was her actual parent.

"Tell me. I wanna know. Everything."

Liam sighed. "Bel'lie was an evil person. He was a sociopath, and he was so good at hiding his emotions that nobody could protect Da'an from him. When Da'an was little, Bel'lie tried to kill her. She survived, but I think it left a scar on her. Ever since then, she feels like she has to protect the ones she loves above all else. She doesn't want to hurt them like Bel'lie hurt her."

"So when she's sick or hurt or something like that, she kind of…stays away from people?"

"Yeah. That's exactly what she does."

"And that's why you always got mad at her?"

"That's why a lot of people get mad at her. She's an extraordinary person. A lot of people want to get close to her, but she has trouble letting them near. That's why you may think that she leaves you all the time. She's not leaving you Ariel. She's protecting you from the bad things in the world."

"But that doesn't mean that she has to like you more than she likes me."

"She doesn't Ariel. Trust me," Liam assured. That was one thing he could be certain of. "She's not trying to avoid you. She's just really, really sick. She needs to get better. I know we're making it sound like it's a big deal. But you know, the more I think about it and the more time passes, I realize that maybe this is Da'an's way of finding a way to move on. She feels responsible for her other child's death—she's grieving, Ariel. She's mourning him in the only way her mind knows how at the moment. It seems like she's rejecting you, but she's not. She's just mourning the child she lost. I can safely tell you that if anything happened to you, she'd probably be doing the exact same thing. She loves you with every inch of her being."

"I know she loves Zo'or," Ariel said. "Sir told me all about him. I don't know why she loves him so much. He was evil. But maybe it's like her and my mommy. She didn't like mommy because mommy tried to kill her, but when mommy died, she felt bad. So she took me. She loved mommy too, but she felt like mommy…betrayed her. So when mommy died, she felt like it was her fault."

"That's right. Da'an realized that despite everything they had been through, she loved Lili."

"So she felt like that about Zo'or too? Even though he didn't love her, she loved him?"

"Zo'or was her child."

"But mommy and ma'am aren't related. There's no reason for her to love mommy."

Liam took the opportunity to pull Ariel closer and sat her atop his knee. "But Lili's like me. She was a really good friend to Da'an, and if it wasn't for Lili and people like her, Da'an probably never would've come to respect humanity as much as she does. They've saved each other's lives several times, Ariel. They were a lot closer than their ending leads you to believe."

"Then…you're just like mommy," Ariel said, "so ma'am loves you like she loves mommy."

"Exactly," Liam nodded. "That's why Da'an cares so much about me. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about you more."

Ariel sighed. "I guess I understand that."

"Ariel, listen to me," Liam said setting her so that he could look directly into her eyes. "You are not now nor have you ever been second place to anybody. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth or anything that's happened between the people around you, you were never second to anybody. I know that Da'an has difficulty showing that. Because of everything she's been through as a person, it's hard for her to display any kind of affection. But that's what makes her strong too. She's not like me. She tries not to let her emotions to get the better of her. She won't let her emotions weaken her like I do. Her emotions make her strong because she knows when and how to use them, especially now."

"I get that," Ariel said.

It was at that moment that Liam realized just how foolish he had truly been acting, not towards Ariel but towards everyone he knew and loved. He had let his emotions get the better of him on one too many occasions. He was still doing that now. This heavy weight of depression he had placed on his shoulders was to blame for his current inactivity. It was what had driven Renee away and what had made him so weak in front of those Espelons and in front of Ariel. How many times had he let his emotions get the better of him without the slightest apology to anyone? He had let his anger get the better of him so many times, especially with Da'an and Renee. He wanted to hit himself for his immaturity. This hiding behind his own feelings was turning him into a coward and a fool. No wonder fate had chosen Da'an to pick up the slack, to whisk his burden from him. He had displayed one too many times that he lacked the maturity to handle it. He had seen the consequences of letting emotions overcome logic through so many people, including Da'an. It was no wonder the Taelons found emotions so dangerous. When used in excess, they were dangerous not just to the one utilizing them but to the people around them as well. It was a weakness every individual had to deal with at least once in their lives: balancing ones own emotions with logic. When one found that balance, that was when one reached full maturity. Now that he fully comprehended his error, he could now find his own maturity and be the leader he wanted so desperately to be. It was time for him to grow up, but then, it had been time for that long ago.

"Ariel," Liam said taking her hand.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For helping me realize my mistakes."

Ariel shrugged. "Whatever. I just want ma'am to be okay."

"Well, we're in a church right now," Liam said. "Maybe we should pray for her."

Ariel forged a smile on her tiny face. "Okay."

Hand in hand, they rose and walked towards the large cross at on the stage. And they kneeled and prayed.

* * *

"You told me that you were not the first to be assigned to investigate the Human Liberation Movement."

"I didn't say that. I said I wasn't the only one."

"Give me an example of an agent."

"I will not under any circumstances known to God compromise the identity of an active agent."

"I never asked you to give me information on anyone living. A dead agent qualifies just as well as a live one."

"You could trace a dead agent's identity to others."

"You forget that I can pry the identity of any agent you have been in contact with at whim."

"You know, this is very much going the way of an interrogation," Rembrandt said harshly.

"You agreed to tell me everything, Brigadier General," Ma'el said just as harshly. "I am not asking much. Besides, do you honestly believe I would have this conversation with you if I meant for Da'an to betray you?"

Rembrandt huffed an extremely long sigh. Then, he rolled his eyes. "Elizabeth Atherton. Worked for the resistance for three years. She was killed about a year ago when she was re-assigned to investigate The Cloister. There were also questions of her integrity."

"Explain."

"From what I heard, she was getting too attached to the members. She was really starting to believe in their cause. She got too caught up in her own fake identity. There was some controversy, and so the feds reassigned her. Don't even begin to ask me why the CIA saw The Cloister as a threat because I have no clue. All I know is they didn't trust The Cloister's leader. That's why Elizabeth got reassigned there."

"Her profile sounds an awful lot like yours, Brigadier General. You have grown quite attached to my twin. You have been willfully helping the human resistance and now you aid the Atlantic National Alliance. You spend more time with your resistance peers than you do at headquarters."

"That has nothing to do with attachment. That's part of the job."

"I find it very hard to believe that falling in love with a fallen Taelon and helping her care for her adopted child qualifies as 'part of the job.'"

"That's the exact same thing my boss told me."

"Then you have reported to your superiors."

"I did right after Da'an and I split."

"Really? So what you are telling me is that my sister was not satisfying you enough. Therefore you fled to your superiors. Can she count on this kind of behavior every time you two have a quarrel?"

"Now you're twisting my words," Rembrandt said sinisterly.

"I am certainly not asking you to avoid answering my questions," Ma'el said just as sinisterly.

"I didn't have anything else to do."

"Between your job of investigating the resistance, caring for a child that is not even yours, and dealing my sister's newfound abilities, it sounds to me like you had plenty to do."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Then, in what way did you mean it?"

"Look, I love Da'an, but I still have a job to do. I take that job seriously. I never asked to fall in love with her."

"Well, now you just sound ungrateful, Brigadier General."

"Da'an and I see eye to eye on some key issues. We both see Hubble Urick as a threat, and my job right now is to investigate him."

"I see. So Da'an, the highly-ranked Taelon Synod member who betrayed her own species by leaving them for a bunch of savage humans and taking precious Taelon information with her; Liam Kincaid, a human who is not a human, but a Kimeran-human abomination and the self-proclaimed leader of the Human Liberation Movement; Renee Palmer, a duplicitous CEO with billions in funds at her disposal to give the resistance all the financial means necessary to implement their agenda; Tay'jay Amo'qui, a universally known criminal and professional thief; Marcus 'Augur' Devereaux, a professional computer hacker with an international criminal record and a notorious gambling problem; Juliet Street, another professional computer hacker with no real morals concerning the profession whatsoever—these people are of no threat to the safety of the United States of America and the world. But Hubble Urick, a beloved politician and personal friend of the hundreds of international figures including the President of the United States is? Is that what you are telling me?"

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm telling you!" Rembrandt cried, half in sarcasm and half out of plain simple frustration.

"Now, who is twisting words? You have been twisting words ever since you became involved romantically with Da'an."

"What's your point?"

"My point Brigadier General is that you have lied to the CIA on several different occasions. You protect the identities of Da'an's friends because you automatically assume they are your friends as well. However, Hubble Urick is definitely not your friend, so you make him your scapegoat."

"Hubble Urick _is_ a threat!"

"I never said he was not. However, you cannot put these people with their questionable actions above him just because they are your friends and Hubble is not. They are all threats, and your job is to ascertain the extent of the threat they all pose and report that to the CIA. You compromise the integrity of your job by becoming romantically involved with an obvious suspected terrorist, regardless of how kind and gentle she is to you. Your relationship with Da'an is riding on a feeling, you sanctimonious fool. How can I possibly know that you will not compromise Da'an's safety and put her on the same threat level as Hubble Urick just because you two had an argument that night?"

"You son of a bitch!" Rembrandt cried. "You tricked me! You've been tricking me ever since I first walked into this room!"

"Choose your insults carefully, Brigadier General," Ma'el said in a tone that hinted he was enjoying this. "Your supposed beloved was born under the very same bitch I was."

"Okay then. How does 'you manipulative cretin' sound?"

"I told you how many times that I would always love Da'an. I would always protect her. I thought you of all people would understand that. After all, your job is to protect an entire nation from anyone and everyone you view as a threat. You and I are the same, Brigadier General. What separates us, however, is that I do not show any kind of favoritism towards my suspects."

"I would never betray her! I love her!"

"How can I be certain of that? How can you be certain of that?"

"What do you want me to do? Beg!" Rembrandt cried.

"Act like an adult, soldier!" Ma'el shot back. "Do you want me to tell you what I think of you from this time we have spent together? I think that you are living in a fantasy. You believe that in your current situation you really can protect my sister and love her. What you fail to realize is that you lack the resources to do so. You have a questionable upbringing, you are quick to anger, and worst of all, your current job is to put my sister and people like her in prison. You cannot expect to serve your position to the best of your abilities and live in this latchkey family with Da'an and Ariel at the same time. You have to choose. Your lover or your duty. And considering your performance with me, I doubt the suitable choice for you would be the former. You are not good enough for her. You are not in love with her. You are too enveloped in a job you are not even doing well. You cannot fully dedicate yourself to either, and until you do, you will never have the ability to protect her and her family. You will never be good enough for her."

"I don't have to take this," Rembrandt said, flinging himself from the chair. "I don't have to take this from a relic! I came here just for her! I love her! All I want is for her to be with me. Good God! Isn't just being here enough for you people?"

"Any idiot visitor with some kind of appreciation for Da'an's mission could come here, you fool. Regardless of how you feel about Da'an, you can never dedicate yourself to her. That is why I asked you here. That is why I initiated this little game with you. You are a brilliant man, Brigadier General, but you are a coward. You lack the emotional stability and the dedication to handle Da'an and the destiny she poses to fulfill when she overcomes this hurdle. You have proven this simply by running from her after one disagreement, when she needed you the most. The reality Brigadier General is that you have no place in our vision. I thought that with this session I could show you the means to uncover a way to create your own place, but I see that I was mistaken."

"Then, maybe I should just leave," Rembrandt said, so angry that his voice had fallen toneless. "I'll just leave Da'an to wallow here in her madness with you."

He hurled the chair out of his way and stormed out of the room.

"That's right, Brigadier General. Run. Run like the duplicitous coward you are," Ma'el said subtly.

* * *

The rain cleared in the evening, and Liam walked back to the headquarters with Ariel. They stopped by the hotdog stand that had apparently withstood the violent storm and got the first hotdogs the owner had found the time to bake after the storm. Liam could understand why Da'an and Lili felt such an attachment to Ariel. In the short quality time they had spent together, Liam had already grown to love Ariel. She reminded him of himself. So much potential and so much brilliance. And yet, she was doing a much better job of being him than he had done. That's the advantage of having a childhood. With a childhood, you're given time to make mistakes and learn from them. Liam, thrust into adulthood, just kept making the same mistakes, and hurting people because of it.

Liam dropped Ariel off with a terrible-looking Link. He tried to ask Link what was the matter, but Link told him to drop it very sharply. So Liam portalled back to this apartment complex from the headquarters and thought nothing more of it for Link's sake.

He was very concerned when he found that his alarm had been switched off, but a light flipped on before he could do anything about it. On the floor, Liam saw a sea of matched luggage that was too expensive to belong to him. He followed the trail until it came to a beautiful blonde woman who was standing by a light switch.

"Sorry about the mess," she said.

"No, it's…it's fine," Liam said. "Renee, what made you come back?"

"You," Renee said simply.

"Renee, I—"

"No, let me say this," Renee said, smoothing her hair trying to fight her nerves. "Listen, I know that there is a lot of…friction between us. I know that as long as this war continues, I'll never have you all to myself. But…I…Liam, I love you. I love no one else the way I love you. All my life I've dreamt of the kind of man that I wanted to marry. You…don't even come close to that description. You're not very successful financially, you're headstrong, overly emotional, and you have—next to Da'an—probably the most dysfunctional family known to mankind. I went with Joshua because he and I both knew that he is the type of man I've always wanted as a husband. But…while I was with Joshua, I realized that you are something extraordinary. You're unique. I've never met anyone like you, and I'm happiest when I'm with you. Even when you're at your worst, you never attack me, you never hurt my feelings—all you can do is feel. All you do is love me. You've found a place so close to my heart that it can't function without you. I don't work without you, and now…I can't picture myself anywhere else but with you. Even if I have to compete for you, I can't live without you."

"Renee, I'm sorry," Liam said, moving closer to her. "You always had and always will have me all to yourself. I don't work without you either. I'm sorry if I've ever led you to believe anything otherwise. I've been messed up for a long time, and the worst part is that I didn't even know it. Now I do know that, and I'm going to be a better man for you. A lot of things have made me realize this, but I don't think even those things would have made me realize it if you had been there. I want to be a better man because I don't want to lose you again. I love you too, Renee Palmer."

Renee embraced him and pressed her lips against his, and then she pulled him into his bedroom.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Come to the Grace of Earthly Devoted Harmony

_Past. Present. Future. I have now seen them all. I have experienced the past. I have endured the present. And I am constantly seeing and hearing pieces of the future. I believe that I was meant to undergo this pain. There are some things that are beyond my control because I am a mere mortal. Past, present, and future have all taught me that the future cannot be changed. I cannot stop the change. I could not save my child Zo'or because I was not meant to. I could not save myself from this madness because I was not meant to. That is not the duty of the psychic. The duty of the psychic is to prepare for the future. Because even though I see millions of different circumstances and possibilities, there is only one future_.

_Think of the ones you love. Think of the ones who love you. Think of your life. Think of me. Think of Ariel._

_Ariel…_

_What a fool I was! I sought control above all else. I was just as prideful and vain as my child. I can no longer neglect the ones I love. Ma'el. You did this to save me from myself because you could not save you from yourself. We engineered this together. What have I done? How many have I hurt like this? As this cold, catatonic lunatic trapped in a dream—no, a nightmare!_

_I have to go back…_

_What have done?_

_Rembrandt_

_

* * *

_

"You look sad, sir, sadder than you normally are," Ariel said while he was walking her to the portal that would lead them home.

"Than I normally am?" Rembrandt cried. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, ever since ma'am got sick, you're always sad."

"So are you," Rembrandt argued.

"I know, but I talked with Liam today."

"You did? And did you find out that he's not that bad of a guy?"

"He's okay. He's kind of weird, but I don't think he has the spine to hurt ma'am's feelings the way I thought he did. He's too nice and too emotional, especially for a guy."

Rembrandt laughed. "I've noticed that too. He has a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve. Must be the Kimera in him."

"I don't think so. Kimera don't act like he does. I think it's the human in him. He's just immature, but that's because he's so young. I mean, he's only like three years old."

Rembrandt laughed again. "Not even a year old yet, and you're already talkin' like ma'am." He picked her up so that the distance in height would not be so apparent.

"You don't think ma'am's going to be okay anymore, do you?" Ariel said seriously.

"She won't listen to me. I can't get through to her anymore. I'm not good enough for her ego anymore. She can't even hear my voice. I don't know what led me to believe that I could be the one to help her when no one else has been able to. I guess it was because I love her more than anyone else."

"You shouldn't use that word 'love' unless you really mean it," Ariel advised.

"Oh yeah, and why's that?" Rembrandt asked bluntly.

"Because love, in of itself, is an illusion. It's a fantasy."

"Where did you hear that garbage?"

"It's not garbage. It's true. I've figured it out. Love is a fantasy given to us by the divine. It's heaven's eternal fantasy. Why else would people screw it up if it were anything real? It's all just a big dream."

"Ariel, love is an emotion that makes two people spend their entire lives together. It keeps families together."

"That's not true. It couldn't keep ma'am and Zo'or together, and it couldn't keep Sandoval and Liam together. It couldn't even keep ma'am and Bel'lie together."

"That's because Bel'lie and Zo'or didn't love Da'an. Sandoval didn't love Liam."

"I don't believe that. I'll grant you that Sandoval and Bel'lie didn't love their children, but I believe that Zo'or loved ma'am. I believe he loved her until he died. Just like ma'am and mommy loved each other like sisters or best friends. But it couldn't keep them together. Love doesn't keep people together. People keep people together. Love is a fantasy, put on this world to make it more tolerable than it would seem without it. Think about it. When we think about love, we think about all of these romantic dreams. We think about happy things and pretty colors. But where there isn't love, we think about sad things, dark colors, and ugly pictures. We call that world reality. We're all addicted to it, no matter who we are. At our worst of times, we even try to find a way to take love in just by calling on God or whoever to love us and forgive us. People put a stigma on fantasies. They tell kids like us not to dream because our dreams aren't like the real world."

"That's not true. It's okay to dream. But we all need to be able to separate the dream from the reality."

"But because love is a fantasy that crosses into our reality, we eternally take it in. That's why love is heaven's eternal fantasy. Even if we can separate the dreams we have from the reality we live in, we can't seem to find a way to separate love. That's because love is such a sweet feeling. It's so nice that we're addicted to it. We can't live in reality without the fantasy. And like a fantasy, we make something out of love. We create these ideas of relationships, family values, and sometimes sick things."

"You make it sound as if love is such a terrible thing."

"It isn't. It's a fantasy. Fantasies aren't supposed to be bad. That's why we're so addicted to it. And that's why heaven granted it to us all. But it's not enough to take in the fantasy. It's not enough to love people. You have to make something out of the fantasy because that's the only way that love will be real. By itself, no love is real. That's why people can fall in and out of love. You, as an individual, have to make something out of love. You have to make it real. You have to do something that will make the fantasy real."

Rembrandt stopped dead in his tracks. "Wh-Where did you hear this from, Ariel?"

But when he turned to look at her, she was gone. She had left his arms and had left him alone in the dark. "Ariel? Ariel! Ariel, where are you? Ariel!"

* * *

"Sir, wake up. Sir!" Ariel cried.

Rembrandt shot up out of the chair he had fallen asleep on.

"What the…? Where am I?" Rembrandt asked.

"Su'ki asked me to stay after, and you said you'd wait for me. I'm ready to go now."

"So…you and I didn't just have an intellectual conversation about love?"

"What does 'intellectual' mean?"

"Oh my God. Holy crap! That's it! That's the answer! Oh, kid, I've never loved you more than I do now!" Rembrandt said embracing Ariel and kissing her. "Stay with Su'ki a couple of hours longer. Study some geology or somethin'. I'm going back to the hospital."

"But why?" Ariel pleaded.

"I'm going to get your mother back!" Rembrandt cried darting out of the lobby of the headquarters building.

Ariel sighed and ran back to find Su'ki before she could find an elevator down to the barracks.

* * *

"Rembrandt! What are you doing back here?" Ta'lay cried.

"I have to talk to her. Just let me see her one more time."

"Visiting hours are over. They've been over for quite some time. If I let you down there, I could lose my privileges here," Ta'lay whispered harshly.

"Ta'lay, if this doesn't work, then you won't wanna be here anymore anyway. Please you've got to let me do this. I need to do it. It's the only way to get through to her."

Ta'lay sighed and silently cursed the sky. "I am never going to forgive you for this if you are wrong. Follow me _quietly_, and for the love of the Queen, do not say or touch anything until we get down there."

She grabbed him and dragged him towards the elevator.

* * *

"Hey, you little bastard. Remember me?" Rembrandt cried just before Ta'lay shut the door.

"Brigadier General. You have returned. Perhaps you are not as cowardly as you seem."

"I'm not talkin' to you. I want to speak with Da'an, goddamn it, and I wanna speak with her now."

"Quite persistent of a sudden, no? What brought about this change of heart?"

"Shut up you! You're not even real! You don't even exist to me! You're just some fragments that used a closed portion of Da'an's mind to impersonate her dead brother."

"Impudent whelp!" the voice cried standing to face him. "You know nothing of our visions and our dreams! You know nothing of my life and what I have had to endure."

"Then open yourself to me!" Rembrandt shot back. "Let me inside your mind and show me just how miserable your life has been without your precious sister. Or are you so afraid that you'll find out you're nothing but a ghost that you won't do it?"

"You would not last five minutes inside here. You are not focused enough."

"I'll be the judge of that," Rembrandt said sinisterly. "I'm sick of this game, and I'm sick of you!" He lifted his palm showing that he was ready to share. "Now, it's time for me to make my own game."

A hard force pushed Rembrandt backwards as if he had been punched in the head. He was flat on his back when the voice grabbed him by his neck and lifted him off his feet in a display of strength Rembrandt had never seen before.

"Are you threatening me? Or are you challenging me?"

Even though Rembrandt could barely breathe, he still had the focus and the determination to look directly into the eyes of the body that voice was controlling. "Both."

The body hurled Rembrandt back on to the floor. "How interesting. You have impressed me, Brigadier General. You have more dedication inside of you than I originally interpreted. Perhaps there is some hope for you and my sister. On you knees, soldier!"

He was on his knees waiting for the voice to sit beside him. His back was straight and his hands were behind him. He had the focus of a true officer of the military. He closed his eyes, and he could hear the voice whispering to him in his left ear. _Quiet your mind, and listen._

Rembrandt found himself able to quiet his mind much more easily this time. That was because there was only one thing on his mind right now. All his senses and all his focus were now on that whisper in his left ear, waiting for the voice to open his mind and to open Da'an's heart.

That faint low sound returned to him, the faint breaths of Ma'el—no, of Da'an. The whispering of the air circulating through the walls. That heartbeat. But they were not in unison as they had been before. But Rembrandt didn't care. He was too focused.

_Now, Brigadier General, can you hear it?_

_No. Again._

_Relax yourself and listen._

Rembrandt concentrated on his own breathing and the heartbeat of his beloved. All other thoughts were now gone, replaced by sensations and feelings. He could hear and feel the Taelon heartbeat. And the hum of voices came to him.

Rembrandt felt like a tsunami of a sound wave had overcome him. The voices were louder and more intense, so intense that he could not separate on from the other. It was as if Ma'el had dropped him in the middle of a riot. The sounds were disorienting and even painful at times. Then, he made the mistake of opening his eyes. For every voice that bombarded him, a warped and disturbing image was not far behind. It was thousands—no millions—of distorted images, intense colors, and loud, booming voices pounding him. For every different color, a terrible feeling in Rembrandt's body struck. Sickly greens, menacing reds, dirty browns, and frigid blues! He felt like he was going to vomit, and he would not have been surprised if he'd already done so. If he had, he could sure taste it in his mouth right now.

_Alexandre! _

Rembrandt focused on the voice that was calling him by his true name. It sounded like Ma'el. It was the only thing subsiding this terrible nauseous plethora of images, sounds, and sensations.

_Oh my God!_

_There is no God here, Alexandre. Now, close your eyes and look away!_

_Look where? _

_You must close your eyes and look away, or my powers will drive you mad._

_This is your power! This is what it's like?_

_Just look away!_

Rembrandt closed his eyes and turned away. Somehow, closing his eyes had awakened another vision. This time, he was in a red and black vortex with brilliant flashes of white light passing by like comets. _What is this?_

_This is whatever your mind makes of it. Do you hear it, Alexandre?_

_No, thank God!_

_Wrong! Again, Alexandre, can you hear it?_

_I don't want to!_

_You have come this far. You led me to believe you would not give up on her. Now, again Alexandre! Do you hear it?_

Rembrandt called as loudly as his mind could.

_Do not call now. Listen! Do you hear it, Alexandre?_

Rembrandt interpreted this to mean that he was supposed to walk through the vortex. He tried to, but it was as if someone had drugged him. He could not tell what was the ground and what wasn't. All he could think was that he had to move forward and hope that she was there. God! No wonder she had lost her mind. What kind of person could stand all of this?

Somehow he managed to move through the vortex, or at least that's what he thought he was doing. It had to be, but he couldn't be sure in this maelstrom. But he had ways of determining he was right. For one thing, he was able to make out discrepancies in the vortex—lights that would pass one place when they had passed another place before, imperfections that seemed to appear in different places like holes in an incomplete wall. That was when another hum came to him. Dreading the same terrible feelings Ma'el had put him through before, he tried to run away, but the hum reached him too quickly. However, this hum of voices was less torrential than the other had been. They were running so quickly that he could not make anything out. They ran softly, like pleasant whispers.

The vortex began to subside and the lights slowly stopped. He found himself able to make out simple words as he had been before. He had found her. He could not see her, but he could hear her.

_Do you hear it, Alexandre?_

_Yes. I hear it._

_Then, speak to her._

All motion in the vortex stopped, and that was when Rembrandt discovered that he had never been in a vortex at all. He had been in a cave. The lights had really been hanging torches on either side of the cave, the black had been the contrast to the fires' light, and the red had actually been brown. It was such a strange color brown however that he had mistaken it for red. These were walls of stone he had been walking through. These tunnels were manmade. When he reached a wide opening, he saw her. He saw her floating above an aquifer in the tunnel. He tried to reach for her, but the image distorted itself. He realized this was just a figment of his imagination, but he could still hear those faint whispers. At least those were real. He had somehow dreamt this to make the situation a little more manageable. The sights were all a fake, but the sounds were real.

_Speak to her._

_Da'an, please listen to me. I understand now. I understand everything. I know why you were in so much pain and why you lost your mind. I just spent five minutes in that whirlwind, and I couldn't handle it. I should have been there for you. I wanted to, but I couldn't handle it, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But you can't go on like this. You can't stay here in this fantasy. I realize that the fantasies are always much better than the realities. That's why we hide in them so. I love you, but I realize that loving you isn't enough because love by itself is just a fantasy. I don't know what kind of force brought us together, but I'm going to make something of it. I want to be with you forever. I want to show you that reality isn't so bad because I'm going to bring love into it. I'm going to make love real for you. I wish I could give you anything else, but that's all I have to offer. Please don't stay here in this mind prison. You should be free. You belong in the real world, even if the real world is at times brutal. You need to be free, Da'an. Think of the ones you love. Think of the ones who love you. Think of your life. Think of me. Think of Ariel._

There was a stir in the face of that floating woman. She blinked rapidly, and Rembrandt felt a force cast him out of the vision. When he awoke he was back in that white room. He had found that he had not vomited at all, but he was too dizzy and disoriented to care. When his vision finally steadied itself, he saw her on the floor groaning and jerking with her eyes flashing back and forth from blue to red and to white. He had to be sure that it wasn't Ma'el or some rendition of. He had to be sure it was she and only she.

"Da'an, come on. Snap out of it," Rembrandt whispered trying to take her fluttering body into his arms.

One of her hands grabbed his shoulder and squeezed so hard that he felt pain and blood.

"Just think of Ariel and me. Just shut out everything else. Nobody's here but me. You can do it. You're stronger than this!"

Her body went limp for a moment, and Rembrandt pulled her up to face him. "Goddamn it, Da'an! You don't belong in there! Just listen to my voice. Don't listen to them. They're not real. It's all just a bad dream!"

The bed and the chair rattled. The lights flickered on and off.

"You can do this. I know you. I love you. You can't leave me. You can't leave Ariel. My God, Da'an, think of your family! We're your family!"

A sharp gasp came out of Da'an, and her eyes snapped to that blue color Rembrandt remembered so well. "Oh Rembrandt, what have I done!"

Rembrandt sharply embraced her as if letting her go would somehow thrust her back into that miserable dream world. "It's okay," he kept repeating over and over again.

She was trembling and she was crying painfully into his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Rembrandt just kept repeating that it was all right until he could say it no more. Then, he lifted her head and passionately kissed her. They were locked in this kiss as if their life forces depended on the length of the kiss. They stood and they were still kissing. Rembrandt walked her to the door, and they were still kissing.

* * *

Ta'lay and Rembrandt returned a couple of hours later to pick up Ariel. It was so late that Ariel had fallen asleep as Su'ki read to her _Aesop's Fables_. They knocked quietly on the door of the game room, where Su'ki had kept Ariel, for the barracks were still too active.

"She just fell asleep," Su'ki said.

"Thank you for doing this, Su'ki," Rembrandt told her. "I owe you big."

"It's fine. I enjoyed it," Su'ki said. "I was her wet nurse, so it's not like I'm not used to having her."

"Hey, sprout. Wake up," Rembrandt whispered silently.

"What happened to your shoulder?" Su'ki said, noting the traces of blood on the left shoulder of Rembrant's shirt.

"It's fine," Rembrandt dismissed quickly, diverting his attention back to Ariel. "Sprout. Come on."

Ariel slowly and groggily awoke, and she lifted her head from Su'ki's lap. "Sir? You came back, finally."

"I'm sorry it took so long," Rembrandt said.

"We brought someone for you," Ta'lay said softly and jovially. She motioned for someone outside to come in.

Da'an walked into the room wearing a pair of black slacks, a blue oxford shirt, a brown pair of casual shoes, and a long blue knit sweater, all of which belonged to Ta'lay. Her hair was cut down to her shoulders, and it was that vibrant red color Ariel had replicated with her own hair. "Hello, Ariel."

"Ma'am!" she screamed and leapt into Da'an's arms.

Su'ki stood in absolute awe. "I don't believe it! How in the world did you do it, Ta'lay?"

"I had nothing to do with it," Ta'lay said. "It was all him." She pointed at Rembrant, who had joined Ariel in her embrace.

Da'an gently held Ariel in her arms and looked directly into her daughter's eyes. Her voice was calm and soothing, like a mother's. "Ariel, I promise that I will never leave you again."

"It's too late out there tonight, Rembrandt," Ta'lay said. "You all should stay here."

"We could bring a few couches or sleeping bags or something in here, and you could have the game room," Su'ki suggested.

"Anywhere's good as long as we're all together," Rembrandt said heedlessly.

A few minutes later, Ta'lay and Su'ki were back with a couch and sleeping bag, one from the lobby and the other from the barracks. Da'an and Ariel slept in the sleeping bag together and Rembrandt slept on his stomach on the couch. The couch and the sleeping bag were situated side by side so that Rembrandt could hold Da'an's hand as they slept. Ta'lay had jerry-rigged an energy shower from the medical lab and turned it on while Su'ki turned off the lights.

"And this time, I hope you all have sweet dreams," Ta'lay said softly, and she closed the door and let them all sleep and dream together.

The End


End file.
